Pointy Shiny Zoids Adventure Romance of DOOM!
by pointytilly
Summary: A mysterious pilot with a powerful Zoid and a new Organoid join Team Blitz, Bit saves the day, and people fall in love...all this in one fabulous tale of adventure, drama, and sharp pointy cats! Now with hopefully fixed chapters after FF dot net did strange, strange things. Again.
1. Electric Pointy Cat Battle!

Oh, I'm not bothering with a disclaimer. Disclaimers are silly. Wait...was this a disclaimer? Oh, blast...

This is meant to be a parody, written in a style like The Princess Bride or Get Smart—a legitimate story, but certainly not taking itself seriously.

I named Mach way before Fuzors (he's actually named for the bicycle in Pokemon, really). This thing has no Fuzors influence whatsoever, sadly. It's also very old, but people seem to like it, so I've gone through and fixed it up a little: unbroken the formatting FF dot net broke, and removed some of the ellipses overuse.

* * *

Silence filled the air. If it were possible for a lack of anything to fill something, that is. The first rays of daylight flickered across the rather barren landscape of one of Zi's innumerable deserts, bouncing their glowy selves through the terrain. Wind blew, stirring up dust and slowly working to fill in the many Zoid footprints that crisscrossed the dunes and cliffs. Birds began to chirp, until the narrator remembered that the desert isn't usually the place to find flocks of songbirds, and the bird-chirping was replaced by a wild Saberlion yowling to its fellow lion-types. Much better.

Somewhere in the middle of all this pretty landscape was a base belonging to one Team Blitz. Winning the Royal Cup—especially in such a spectacular manner as the Liger Zero's defeat of the Berserk Fury—had propelled a relatively unknown team into the spotlight. This had prompted much celebrating and avoiding of annoying reporters, but the team members themselves hadn't really changed. They had enjoyed their short vacation, for the most part, and were getting anxious for a chance to fight a battle in the famed Class S...Bit most of anyone.

And as there was a battle scheduled for today at noon, Bit was up early.

So was Rinon.

And Bit just _had_ to have a quick morning snack consisting of a certain person's bag of Chex Mix...

So much for the peaceful mood.

Crashes, bangs, and assorted loud noises filled the base, occasionally punctuated by a yelp of pain or Rinon's screams to give back the [colorful metaphor] Chex Mix before I tear out your throat, Bit!

A normal person would wake up and wonder what the heck was going on, and perhaps try to stop the pair before something nasty happened. But the members of Team Blitz weren't what one would call normal...and besides, they were quite used to all the noise the two made by now. Same old, same old. The clamor moved in the general direction of the kitchen, and was soon supplemented by the occasional clang of a frying pan. And then-disaster. One of the frying-pan-clangs was followed by the crackling of electricity and a rather loud explosion...and finally, quiet. For all of 3 and-a-half seconds.

"Gaaaaaah! You broke the stove! Now how are we gonna have breakfast?"

"_I_ broke the stove? I wouldn't have hit it if _you_ hadn't ducked!"

"I wouldn't have ducked if you weren't trying to bash my head in!"

* * *

And so it was that Team Blitz dined on cold cereal and Pop-Tarts that morning, the toaster having somehow escaped unscathed aside from a few scorch marks. Ballad had fallen asleep with his head on the table, his coffeemaker declared a total loss...what parts of it they could find, anyway. Bit reached out and poked the former mercenary's right shoulder. "Hey, are you gonna eat that?" he said, pointing to a lone strawberry pop-tart whose sugar-filled companion hadn't been enough of a substitute for caffeine. Receiving no reply, Bit shrugged and devoured the helpless pop-tart in a few quick bites.

"Mnnnnh..." Ballad stirred slightly, muttering something about getting back at the idiots who blew up his coffeemaker and that yes, the Shadow Fox would like some ketchup with its french-fried Ligers. Bit warily shifted his chair away from him, only to bump into Rinon's instead. She shot him a death glare. "Hey, how was I supposed to know it was yours?"

Rinon held up the now partially-crisped and empty Chex Mix bag. It rather clearly had "RINON'S CHEX MIX: DO NOT EAT THIS, BIT!" written on it in huge katakana in with a black marker and underlined. Twice. Bit gulped and rubbed one hand behind his head, searching for a way to change the subject, and quickly...ah, Jamie was about to say something, good.

"Got any more info on the team we're fighting today? I can't exactly come up with a strategy if I don't even know what we're up against." Jamie, too, was hyper, although in his case it was nervousness rather than excitement. He sat poking at the crust of his Pop-Tart, the rest long-eaten. Bit motioned towards it—he wanted to eat it? _Er_...Jamie shrugged, and the crust of his cinnamon Pop-Tart joined Ballad's strawberry one...and the five others Bit had already eaten. He sighed, realizing that he wasn't exactly going to get a reply from the Doc, who was currently running the plastic Lightning Saix that had come in the cereal box back and forth on the table in a close race with the salt shaker. "Sometimes I wonder if you guys pay any attention to me at all..."

As if that weren't enough, Bit and Rinon, Chex Mix forgotten, were now attempting to balance their stacked cereal bowls on Ballad's head amid much snickering over whether he'd notice or not. "Er, guys, I don't think that's a good idea." No sooner did the words leave Jamie's mouth than Ballad moved again, starting to sit up. Bit and Rinon jumped back, expecting much imminent falling-and-breaking-of-bowls, but Ballad smoothly caught them behind his back and placed them both back on the table. "Mrph...very funny, you two," he said, staring sleepily at the pair he had decided to refer to as the Evil Coffeemaker-Wrecking People for the time being. "I'm going to go get a cup of coffee in town or something before the battle." Pausing to yawn, Ballad looked back at his plate. "You know, I could have sworn I had another Pop-Tart."

Bit suddenly became quite interested in watching the Doc's race...after all, it was the final lap, and the salt shaker was rapidly gaining on the Lightning Saix.

* * *

Excerpt From "Vega's Stupid Boring Diary Thingie":

_What am I supposed to write in this thing?_

_You see, Sarah told me I should find something better to do than bug her about when they were going to fix the Berserk Fury so I could go back to fighting. Who knew armor took that long to rebuild? Anyway, you know when you drive someone really nuts, they tell you to either find something to do, or they'll find something _for_ you? Take them seriously, because that's how I ended up doing this._

_Can I stop now? Did you fix the armor yet? Hey, come on, you're not even reading what I wrote._

_I'm going to go see if Fury wants to play Go Fish again. I wish he'd stop insisting that because he's an Organoid and a Zoid fused and stuff, he should be able to play with two hands._

* * *

Eleven forty-five came around, and Team Blitz stood in yet another piece of desert, waiting for their opponents to appear. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Or so it seemed to Bit. He called up the display for the clock on Liger's control panel, and blinked when he saw that it only read 11:47. "Liger, are you sure it's only been two minutes?" Bit whacked the screen questioningly, and the Liger Zero growled, shaking its head enough to toss Bit back into his seat. "Okay, okay, just checking."

"I just wish I could have found out more about the other team." It was Jamie, who had stayed behind as he so often did. "They're called Team KawaiiSugoiNeko, but that's not much help. I suppose they probably have at least one cat Zoid, but I couldn't find anything else important. They must be pretty secretive."

"Hey, guys, look!" Rinon yelled, pointing upwards. Her Gun Sniper raised its head in the direction she had indicated, and the rest of the team followed it. Gliding overhead was a smaller version of a Whale King, painted all in black and blue and gold. "They're here!" The carrier opened while still higher up in the air, and for a moment the Team Blitz members thought the opposing team might consist of flying Zoids, not cats. That hypothesis was dashed when, one after another, a trio of largish feline Zoids fell from the opened doors and landed on the ground below with a practiced ease. Bit squinted, trying to get a better glimpse of the enemy through all the dust they had stirred up. One of the Zoids stepped forward, and Bit blinked in surprise—it looked just like Liger Zero! Well...if Liger were painted bronze, gold, and silver. And wore different armor.

"Doesn't matter if they look like you. We're going to win, right, Liger?" The Zoid _mrrrrf_ed in reply, studying its lookalike opponents. They were obviously of the same design as himself, but the armor they wore wasn't. It was a pointy affair—flared pieces of blue set in black and gold forming the mane, blue translucent bits surrounded by black ones with a gold spike on the tops of the legs, a pair of golden blades across the back...for lack of a better word, bristle-y. Not in the same way as his Schneider armor, but more like a real cat's fur with a good amount of static to it taken to an odd, metallic extreme. This was something different, that was for sure.

"Bit, does Liger know what those things are?" Ballad, this time.

"Don't think so. Ah, he says no...you sure? They do look like you." As Bit continued to question the Liger, the judge landed and began to set up the battle, as it had many times before. Except this time, it was wearing a pink frilly hat. No, I'm kidding. Just seeing if you were paying attention. You were, weren't you? With a cry of "Ready, FIGHT!" the match began...

...and nothing happened. The two teams stood, staring each other down. "Well, that was anticlimatic." Ballad muttered, the Shadow Fox giving a bark of impatience and shaking its head in the direction of the opposing feline Zoids, and then shifting back and forth on its paws. Preferring to wait and see how these Zoids moved before attacking them, Ballad tried to calm the Fox down. "Aren't you being a bit hasty, there?" The Fox rruffed annoyedly, but stopped. "Then again, I bet you're itching for another chance at fighting a Liger like Bit's, even if it isn't the Zero..."

"So, are we going to get this battle started, or what?" Bit drummed the fingers of his right hand on Liger's controls. _Come on, I want to fight already, answeranswerans—_

After what seemed like an eternity to the impatient Bit, a voice came crackling through over the comm. It was medium in pitch and that of a younger man such as himself, and sounded confident...but it was hard to tell, as whoever it was didn't have visual on.

"Hah, you'll never beat Team KawaiiSugoiNeko! We use Liger Zero Xs, which everyone knows are better than your Liger Zero!"

"Uh-oh," said Bit. "Liger, do you think we should switch armor?"

"Grrrroar..." _Bit, who cares? You pick, I'm tired. I was up all night partying with Leon's Blade Liger..._

"The Schneider, I agree!"

"Groooaaar..." _Sometimes I wonder if you even listen to me, Bit..._

"Ballad, will you cover for me? Liger wants to change to the Schneider." Bit galloped off for the Hovercargo without waiting for an answer.

The Shadow Fox, meanwhile, was currently fighting for its life against the three Liger Zero X, who had charged the minute they saw Bit leaving. "Bit? BIT? Aw, crud, he's gone to change armor again." Ballad sent the Fox into a crazy mid-air roll as electricity arced through the sky in his direction. "Can't he just pick one and stick with it?" He pulled the Fox into another wild turn, meeting Strike Laser Claw with Strike Laser Claw. The Liger Zero X leaned forward, using its weight to its advantage as the Shadow Fox slowly skittered backwards, struggling for a foothold. Sparks flew, and Ballad could swear he heard something creaking that shouldn't have been. "Uh, Rinon, a little _help_, here?"

"Sorry, but I'm KINDOFBUSYRIGHTNOW!" Ballad looked to his right to see Rinon's Gun Sniper running from one of the Ligers, the only thing saving it from imminent destruction being the fact that its pilot was firing off enough ammunition that the Liger couldn't get close enough for a finishing attack. But where was the third?

The Shadow Fox was getting tired of this. It was getting very tired of this, as a matter of fact. It wanted to be the one with the fancy armors. It was sick of covering for the Liger Zero, sick of all these blasted Ligers! With a burst of energy, the Shadow Fox shoved the Liger Zero X backwards, just long enough for Ballad to get the gatling gun on the Fox's back aimed properly...

With a burst of fire and an indignant roar from the Liger, that part of the battle was over.

_Hah, that'd show that armor-changing cat. Wait, Ballad was saying something about the other one...blast, that's right, there were three!_

Alarms blared on Ballad's console as the Shadow Fox was hit with a wave of electricity. "Gah! One of them must have a cloak!" The Fox howled in protest. It just wasn't fair, stupid stupid Ligers...

Rinon turned to see the Shadow Fox go down in a crackling mess of sizzling metal. "BIT! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU IDIOT?" _Wait,_ she thought. _Why am I always so mean to Bit? Is it because I lo_—aaaaaaah!" At that moment, the Liger Zero X had managed to get though her barrage of ammunition, and the Gun Sniper was sent flying to the ground sans one leg. "Bit, NOW would be a good time!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Sure enough, there was the Liger Zero Schneider, loping back into battle in all its bright orange bunny-eared glory.

"Took you long enough," said Ballad, the frozen Shadow Fox giving a yelp of agreement. "Watch out, one of them has a cloak."

"Don't worry, Liger and I are ready for anything!"

"Graaarrr..." _Speak for yourself...I'm exhausted..._

"That's the spirit! Come on, Liger! Let's show them who's boss!"

"Rrrrrff..." _Definitely not listening..._

The Schneider ran forward, the blades on the sides of its face whipping forwards and charging with energy.

"Bah, you think that'll help you?" Lightning flashed from both sides of the Schneider, grazing it as Bit yanked the controls to dodge as best he could. The Liger skidded to a stop, a bit stunned, but otherwise unharmed. Flipping its face blades back and shaking its head as if to clear it, the feline Zoid seemed as if it were smirking. They had him now.

"No, but it gives me a better idea of where your buddy is. Okay, Liger, get him! Strike...Laser..."

The Schneider leapt towards one of the attacks' sources, claws unsheathing and glowing in that familiar golden light...

"CLAW!" The Liger Zero X exploded in a shower of light, the cloak rippling and sparking as the Schneider's claws ripped off one of the X's blades. The cloak dropped entirely as the X swung around to face Liger Zero, snarling at having its main advantage taken away from it.

"Go, Schneider!" Bit sent the Liger running forward again, the blades on its back flipping out to its sides. The X mirrored the move with its one remaining blade and charged, hoping to at least do some damage before going down. The two cat Zoids leapt for each other at the same time, each trying to dodge the other's blades and still score a hit. Both Zoids missed their targets, the X barely dodging a swipe from the Schneider's right blade as it hopped over the X's. The Schneider fired its right booster alone as it landed on its toes, whipping it around to face the X again at a speed that sent Bit slamming to one side of the cockpit. He wasted no time in deploying the blades around the Schneider's face, and the Liger roared as it rocketed forward and sliced into the still-turning X's shoulder, taking off its right front leg and sending it crashing into the dust, obviously out of the battle.

"All right! Now for the other one!"

"Grrooaaaarr!" _Well, I suppose this is at least more interesting than sleeping._

The Schneider's side blades swung forwards, and the whole set of them charged with energy, whipping around the Schneider in a glowy tornado. "Yaaaaah!"

"Fine, if that's the way you want it...come on, Liger!" The other pilot sent his Zoid running towards the Schneider, the blades gathering electricity rapidly as they snapped forward as well. Lightning met energy in a blinding clash of blade and shield and claw, and the other members of both teams brought their hands up to their eyes as everything went white.

Ballad opened his eyes a few seconds later, trying to blink away the spots that still laced his vision. Not to his surprise, he saw the Schneider standing triumphant, its blades back in their normal positions, and the X, short several pieces, on the ground. The familiar cry of "Battle, all over! Winner: Team Blitz!" rang out over the battlefield, and he could practically hear Bit cheering even without the comm system being on...

"All right! Nice work, you guys!" Even if Jamie hadn't been there fighting, he'd been following the battle as closely as if he were.

"Of course we won! Liger and I are a team! We are kEwLZieS! WE ARE INVINCIBLE! WOOOO! SUGOIIIII~!"

* * *

Some distance away on a cliff, a figure stood watching Bit, who was now standing in Liger's cockpit and doing a victory dance. "Mmmm...quite impressive. Although more than a bit crazy." The figure began to pace back and forth, its identity remaining hidden in heavy shadow, despite that it was nearing the afternoon by now. "Think it's time we challenged them, Mach?" At that, a second figure phased into existence next to the first, seeming to solidify out of the shadows. This one was far from humanoid—it was too large, for one thing. And it also happened to be a cat. A metallic cat. With dragon wings. Yes, it was one of those rare and exotic critters long thought to be extinct (or at least hiding very well)...this creature was an organoid. It turned to the shadowed humanoid and murred its assent, dipping its head and sending small ripples of light reflecting off the shiny deep blues of its armor. "I think it'll be a nice change of pace," the figure continued. "After all, we've yet to find a Zoid that could stand up to mine." The organoid snorted in agreement, tired of battles that were over in a hit or two.

The figure finally stepped into the sunlight, revealing itself—herself—to be a young woman, around the age of the members of Team Blitz. She wore rather unremarkable clothes—jeans, a pink T-shirt and blue vest, sneakers...nothing that would really stand out in a crowd. The effect was ruined by the organoid, striding to her side on quiet metal feet. Your average citizen didn't go running around with something out of history books and legends, after all.

"That Liger of his looks like an interesting opponent, at least. Did you see how it moved? Almost as if it were being aided by one such as myself."

Especially not a _talking_ legend. No, Shineryuu was far from ordinary.

* * *

_Eh? What's going on here? I thought my pilot's old Command Wolf got blown up! And who's this weird girl, and why is he in love with her or something? Wak! Another Command Wolf, and it's really strong! Can even Liger Zero beat it? Do I even care? Next Zoids New Century Slash Zero...Clash! Team Blitz Vs. The Command Wolf of DOOM! Ready, fight!_


	2. Clash!

Shineryuu, in traditional Cool Japanese name sense, is a rather nonsensical combination of cool-sounding words. Mainly, shine (pronounced she-nay, not like the English word), the command form of 'shinu', to die (which is like saying "DIE!"), and ryuu, which means dragon.

Yes, I know Ballad's Command Wolf went boom. For part of this chapter, his Command Wolf makes an amazing recovery from beyond the grave *cue spooky music*, and the Shadow Fox disappears somewhere into the depths of Bad Continuity Land. Don't worry, the Shadow Fox is fine. It enjoyed a nice vacation there.

* * *

The damage to their Zoids having been mysteriously repaired overnight (Doc insisted it was the Zoid-Repair Fairies, but no one listened to him), Team Blitz was going to fight another battle that very afternoon. Thankfully, Bit didn't consider that worth waking up really early for when he'd be up in plenty of time anyway, and a repeat of yesterday's coffeemaker...incident was avoided.

When the teen finally did wake up (at exactly 10:57:02 AM, for the curious), he wandered out of his room, heading more or less towards the refrigerator.

"Foooood..." He passed Ballad, who sat protecting his new coffeemaker, and waved a sleepy hello with one hand. The other's only response was an icy glare that probably would have kept the proverbial snowball-in-Hell from melting for a while, so Bit decided that now was not a good time to talk to him. Oooh, look, there was a nice pizza in the fridge...aw, only half was left. The fraction was reduced to a fourth by the time he had reached his seat.

"Mmmmm, pizza."

* * *

The Liger Zero, too, was 'waking' up, its systems switching out of a more regenerative sleep mode and into their active ones. The organoid bonded to its core protested that it had been having a nice dream, but the Liger insisted on being awake to greet Bit, as it knew he would be coming out to see it...them? The organoid-half gave a mental yawn and got up, as it were, the Liger Zero's core glowing a bit brighter as the two became a bit more of one mind and the confusion of pronouns was forgotten. It...or he...was the Liger Zero, and that was good enough.

"Ghhhyyynnn...good morning, Liger."

Speak of the devil...although Bit was the last person the Liger would expect to be referred to as a devil. Perhaps a better figure of speech was in order. Hmmm, search memory banks...

"Ooooiiii! Ligerrrr! Wakey wakey?"

Snapping out of its little reverie, the feline Zoid rumbled a reply.

_Bit! Hey, when's the battle?_

"You always know when I'm going to tell you about a battle, don't you? It's like some sort of psychic bond...thingie."

_Actually, this time I just overheard you guys talking about it, but that too._

"Aah, hehehe." Bit rubbed a hand behind his head. "It's another team we don't know much about. I think they have a pair of souped-up Shield Ligers and a Saber Tiger."

"Grrrrf."

"No, of course it doesn't matter in the end."

"Rrrraaaarrrf."

"What do you _mean_ I've got pizza sauce all over my face?...oh. Why doesn't anyone _tell_ me these things?"

Team Blitz passed the rest of the time until the battle in a 5-board Parcheesi tournament that soon turned into a Parcheesi-piece-slinging battle royale, courtesy of Rinon accusing Bit of having moved some of her pieces when she got up to find the remote. Evidence as to whether he had or not was lost in the ensuing frenzy of flying objects thrown by all four Blitz members, which stopped only after one of the boards ended up lodged in a viewscreen, and, shortly afterwards, on fire. Toros, mad because his pretty viewscreen now had a smoking Parcheesi board where the picture-in-picture feature had been, told the team to take their Parcheesi-war to the hangar. However, the fun was kind of lost, and they instead settled for making last-minute checks on their Zoids...again.

* * *

Finally, it was battle-time, and off-to-the-Hover-Cargo-time, and oh-no-Doc-can't-find-his-lucky-model-Iguan-and-we're-not-leaving-without-it-time.

"Here Iguan...here boy!" Bit crawled along the floor, peering under various pieces of furniture. "Come onnn, where are you?"

"That's not going to help you find it any faster."

"I—OW!" Bit whacked his head on the underside of the couch as he tried to turn to face Ballad, who sat lounging in a chair as if amused by the whole thing, sipping a cup of coffee and idly tapping his fingers against it. Bit sat up, rubbing his head. "I don't see you helping...you know, if we're late, we might miss the whole battle."

"And the money from it, too." Rinon's voice was muffled—she was currently digging through a cabinet of assorted junk, hoping that the lucky-Iguan had gotten shoved into it by mistake the last time they had cleaned...or rather, shoved most things into one of the 'junk' drawers. "Whaaa? Man, I haven't seen this in years." She held up a plush Redler for a bit and then tossed it over her shoulder, only to pick it back up a few seconds later and set it on top of the cabinet.

"Awww, it's cute." Bit chuckled and reached out for it, only to get it his hand smacked away.

"Hey! That's MINE!" Rinon grabbed the Redler again and patted its head. "Don't worry, I won't let him get you."

"But Iwannaseeiiiiit."

"NO! Leave Fluffy alone! She doesn't like you!"

"Fluffy? Heeee."

"Do you have a PROBLEM with the name Fluffy!?"

Not particularly wanting another fight, Ballad stood up, setting his coffee cup down in the chair—not that there was any coffee left—and cleared his throat. "Fine, I'll help. How about one of you check the kitchen, and the other can help me finish with that...mess over there," he said, gesturing with a turn of his head to the cabinet.

"I'll look in the kitchen!"

"Yeah, you'll probably eat all the food while you're at it!"

"Well, you never know." Bit grinned. "You might find an Iguan hiding in with the leftover pizza. Wait, I ate that already..."

"See?"

"Woooo! I found it!" Doc Toros came running into the room, Iguan held triumphantly aloft in one hand. "Or rather, Jamie did. Anyway, we can go now!" He dashed off again, heading back for the Hover Cargo.

* * *

"So where was it?" Bit had grown tired of staring at the viewscreen, and decided to talk to Jamie instead. Again.

"Eeeh...it was sitting on the console in here. Doc forgot to bring it back inside after last battle."

"I wish I'd though of looking there. Hey, are you sure we're going to get there in time?"

"...for the fifth time, yes."

They arrived in time, but only just. The other team already stood there, waiting.

* * *

Another Excerpt From "Vega's Stupid Boring Diary Thingie":

_They're still working on that blasted armor. I wish they'd hurry up! I want to fight Bit again!_

Fury said that I should be careful not to get to obsessed with beating my rival...something about not wanting to get blown up by a giant scorpion again. I'm kind of worried that he might have gotten hit a bit too hard on the head during the battle with Liger Zero. I hope not.

* * *

Claws charged—not the sort of charge a Strike Laser Claw uses, mind you, as that'd be silly to use on the Hover Cargo...this was the launch ramp's doing—and with a smooth shukuuu-whoooosh of machinery, the Liger Zero flew onto the battlefield. Landing in a cloud of dust, the white Zoid bounced forward a few excited steps before tilting its head to the sky and roaring.

"Grrrrooooooooaaaaaar!" _Wheeeeeeeeee!_

"I wish you wouldn't do that."

Ballad's Command Wolf followed the Liger, and Rinon's Gun Sniper after that, the latter nearly tripping and falling before it got its balance.

"Hah, one would think you'd at least want to take some of the guns off that thing so it could stand up properly!"

"Says the person with a custom armor that can't even walk."

"I don't see the Panzer _falling over_, Rinonnn." The Liger wuffed in amusement and pranced forward again on nimble feet. _Hah, let's see that Gun Sniper do this!_ Rinon's Gun Sniper responded with only a mocking "Wheeeeee!", which went unheard by its pilot, who was busy yelling at Bit...not that its pilot listened to it much anyway. Liger Zero clacked its teeth together with an annoyed snap, stopping its little happy-dance as the Command Wolf barked its own imitation.

* * *

"Come on, you two, stop that. I'm trying to think over here." Ballad couldn't quite figure out why he kept getting the inkling that this wasn't his Zoid, shouldn't be his Zoid. Something was wrong, but the only thing that came to mind was something about a fox. He blinked. That made no sense. And why the heck was his Command Wolf howling what sounded like "Wheeeeeee!"?

"Hey, Doc." Whatever was bothering him, best to get it out of his system before the battle began.

"Gnnnghhhzzz..."

Great, he was asleep.

"Hey, Doc, there's a guy outside who says he's giving away free Zoid models to people who aren't asleep and IGNORING ME!"

"Ehhh? Models!? Oh, Ballad. What is it?"

"You sure you haven't modified my Command Wolf recently or something? Or traded it in for some new shiny one that looks just like it without telling me?" Ballad leaned forward in his seat.

"Oh, no. It's the same one you've always had...but if you _want_ a new shiny one I'd be more than happy to—"

"No, no, that's fine." Ballad cut the comm link off, ignoring Doc Toros as he went off on some tangent about shiny Command Wolves. He still couldn't shake the feeling that he should be piloting a different Zoid, that there was something wrong with the continuity of the whole thing, for lack of a better word. Whatever it was, it could wait. The judge was setting up the battle, finishing:

"Ready, FIGHT!"

No more time to think about that. Nope. Especially not with a Shield Liger with blades—blades? heading straight for the Command Wolf's head. "These guys aren't wasting any time. Look out!" The Wolf jumped clear, the Liger left to skitter past him. It turned somewhat slowly, again jetting forward, this time with the aid of a pair of Blade Liger-ish boosters. Its charge missed again, its own speed hurting it as the Wolf bounded unpredictably around. To his left, he saw the Liger Zero using a similar strategy...and Rinon's Gun Sniper staring down an equally overgunned Saber Tiger, neither moving. If Zoids could blink, these wouldn't have been.

This time, the Liger jumped with him, boosters turning—blast, they could do that—and Ballad found himself hard-pressed to avoid the thing, several blade swipes coming a bit too close for his liking. He tried outrunning it, knowing that it would probably just catch up with him, which it did, far more quickly than he'd expected. "Stupid pseudo-Blade-Liger...ghhh."

"Actually, we call them high-speed Shield Ligers...but hey, I like that." The other pilot was an older man, who Ballad guessed used to serve in the military, if the uniform was of any indication. "Bob's always saying we should call them "pointy kitties", but that's just silly, don't you think?"

"Gnnnhhh."

"Okay, never mind. Not the talkative type, I see."

Oh, if only his Command Wolf were faster. Ballad could have sworn he remembered it going faster than it now was...and there it was again, that sense that there was something wrong, that sense of screwy continuity.

And that blasted Shield Liger, only a few feet away, pouncing.

The only thing for it was to jump. Which the Wolf did, but not high enough. Its back legs rammed into the Liger's face, the pilot switched his shield on, and Ballad found himself and the wolf flying straight up into the air in a painfully dizzy manner, soon heading back down, for the blade and certain doom—

—or not. Glowing claws hit the blade instead, jolting the Liger to one side, and sending the Shadow Fox bouncing into the dirt. Ballad blinked. What the heck? Why had he forgotten about the Strike Laser Claw system for so long? Gah, it was almost as if he'd been piloting his old Wolf...strange. Maybe he was still getting used to the new coffee. After all, no two coffeemakers ever worked the same, despite some people's insistence that it was just coffee and it all tasted about the same.

"All right, enough running. Let's see how he likes having to dodge sharp pointy things."

The Fox, also momentarily disoriented but recovering, switched the Strike Laser Claw system back on without waiting for the actual command. The Liger, swiveling its blade to make sure it wasn't damaged, recharged the pair of the things as well. With that, the battle switched from a test of speed to one of agility...one which the Shadow Fox was winning. While not as dangerous as blades, Strike Laser Claw had one advantage: mainly, that it's a lot easier to hit things that keep moving.

"Waaak! Come on, Liger, get him, will you?" The Shadow Fox hop-skipped over a forward-swinging blade, swatting at the Liger's head with its right paw and leaving another set of gouges in the sides, only to jump back before the Liger could bite him. The cat Zoid growled. It was used to agile opponents, but it just wasn't built for this sort of thing. Countering another swipe at its shield-fins with its own claws, the Liger finally scored a hit—Strike Claw against Laser—and the Shadow Fox crashed into the dirt once more...only to roll into a bounding leap away from the Liger's attempt to squish it.

"I thought that Liger of yours was supposed to be fast."

"Oh, quiet, you."

"Now who's not talkative?" The Fox sprung for the Liger again, and then CRACK!—it was knocked flying _again_...although this time, not by the Liger, who suffered a similar fate seconds later. No, that was heavier fire. Where had it come from, then? Wherever it was, it wasn't from the other team. He could hear the judge having a fit about an unauthorized Zoid being on the battlefield, only to have it cut short by another blast.

"Backdraft! Don't tell me they're back already." The Fox and the Liger got to their feet, both pretty much undamaged by the shots.

"Darnit. I'm not getting anything on sensors." The Liger pilot slammed his console. "That fancy Fox of yours showing anything?"

"No...could be a cloak. I swear, that fire seemed to be from a—"

"Hello, boys."

"—Command Wolf?"

A Command Wolf with way too many weapons, at that. Not in an overbalanced way like Rinon's Gun Sniper, mind, but in a more dangerous-looking sort of way. Like Ballad's old Wolf, it wore a CP-04 and was blue, although that was where the similarity ended. After all, his had never worn a Wild Weasel Unit, nor did his have the foldy-body-armor-bits look of something that's hiding a lot of weaponry and not telling you about it, nyah nyah.

"You guys must really be short on funds after the ZBC got to you. Is that all you can send? One Zoid?"

"Bah, Backdraft. A bunch of idiots. I fight my own battles, thank you."

"In a Command Wolf? Hah."

Before Ballad could so much as blink, the Command Wolf was halfway to the Liger. The cat Zoid turned to run, but too late, and the Wolf rammed it with a surprising amount of force. The Liger hit the dirt, hard. The Wolf fired before it could do anything, and the Liger's command system froze...all in a matter of a couple seconds.

Ballad had a feeling that this qualified as not a good sign.

"It's not just a Command Wolf. It's the Command Wolf of DOOM! HYAH!"

"We'll see about the doom part!" It was the Saber Tiger pilot and Rinon...oh, great, he was probably fond of the 'blow everything up' strategy too.

"You guys, watch out, it's—"

"Aaaaah! Not again!" The Gun Sniper was down, its leg neatly sliced off. What the...Strike Laser Claw, on a Command Wolf?

The Saber Tiger fired everything it had at the Wolf, only to watch it bound neatly out of the way...and slice off its head.

"—really, really fast. Crud. Bit, get back to the Hovercargo and get the Jäger armor, now. We've got an insanely-quick-Command Wolf problem out here."

"Heh, no need to tell me. I'm going, I'm going. Jamie and Bob are headed your way, too."

"Must be the other Shield Liger pilot." Ballad debated whether to charge the Wolf or try and take it out from a distance with the gatling. The darn thing was horribly fast, sure, but it might not be as agile.

Going with the distance method for now, he aimed for the Wolf, who was occupied avoiding fire from the Gun Sniper, whose systems had stubbornly refused to freeze, even if it couldn't exactly go anywhere. Firing, he cursed as the Wolf dodged the shots easily. It would appear it was just as agile as it was quick. But how?

The sharp crack of a sniper rifle echoed through the air, and for a second Ballad wondered if Naomi were there, as improbable as that was...and then he remembered that Blade Ligers could carry different guns, and those Ligers probably did too. The Wolf ducked in time, however, too fast for distance attacks to be of much use.

"Hey, uh...Bob? Watch out for that thing, it's quick."

"I see that." Bob—apparently, he was the pointy kitties dude—chucked dryly. "Don't tell me you guys are having this much trouble with an overgunned Command Wolf?

"That's the Command Wolf of DOOM! Get it right!"

"Whatever, lady."

"Don't you 'whatever' me, the Command Wolf of DOOM! is unbeatable!"

"Really, I'm sure it is."

Bob's Shield Liger charged the Wolf, who leapt into the air and onto the Liger's back, slicing the blades before they had a chance to unfold. The Liger was rapidly shredded, followed by the poor Gun Sniper, whose systems finally froze.

Well, if the gatling was no good, he'd take his chances in a close fight. Ballad sent the Fox towards the Wolf in a sprint, his hands gripping the controls so tightly his knuckles turned white...not that he noticed. His entire focus was on taking out that Wolf and not becoming one of the frozen Zoids on the ground in the process.

"Ballad, look out, I'm going to try and hit her."

Ballad stopped the Fox's charge, pulling up in time to avoid rapid fire from overhead as the Raynos attacked the Wolf, flying low to the ground.

"Watch it, she can jump!" For once, Ballad's warning was in time, and the Raynos climbed abruptly upward as the Wolf leapt for its throat—and missed.

Well, that was something, at least. The Wolf returned fire, and Ballad took the opportunity to blast at it...only to have it bounce out of the way once more. But this time, it bounced straight into Jamie's line of fire.

"Kyaaaaah! Darnit, I can't fight two quick things at once like this. Mach!"

Mach? Huh? Probably the code for some other kind of weapon, Ballad figured, although why one would need the external speakers for that...

"Jamie, get her NOW." Both the Raynos and the Shadow Fox opened fire, the Wolf merely standing there and taking it for once...

And then, a flash of blue, looking rather like a cat, sliced through the air. It roared, leaving Jamie wondering how light could roar until it slammed through the right wing joint on the Raynos. Whatever weapon it was, it was strong, and he was in trouble. Well, so much for him being of any use...the poor flying Zoid tried to stay aloft, only to crash skittering into a sand dune, the damaged wing ripping off in the process.

"What the heck _was_ that?" Jamie watched most of the systems go down as the Raynos listed to one side and collapsed, leaving him leaning at a rather uncomfortable angle in the cockpit. Well, at least he was otherwise okay. Restarting what of the sensor system he could get working and causing the rest of the lights in the cockpit to dim, he focused on the Wolf. Had he and Ballad damaged it at all?

Wait, that couldn't be right. There was a second energy signature near its shoulder—like another Zoid. "Great, even the sensors are wonky."

"Oh, your sensors are working just fine...well, assuming you're freaking out over Mach here. You see, he's an organoid. You know, one of those rare thingies? Mini Zoid?"

"Whaaaaa? I thought they all died, or something."

"That's what everyone says. Enough with this. Mach, let's get that Fox...and then the Liger Zero, whenever it shows its face around here."

She sounded almost bored. Ballad blinked again. An organoid, if the pilot's claims were correct, sat on the Wolf's shoulder, lounging coolly like the cat it resembled. Sure, there were tales of Organoids, but whether or not you believed them, they all agreed on one thing—they were long-gone, as Jamie had said.

Well, this one, if it was an organoid, was most certainly still alive. It nodded in response to what the Wolf pilot had said, and, getting to its feet and unfurling wings, it shifted back into the same kind of energy that had taken out the Raynos and plunged into the Wolf's back. The wolf glowed the same blue from within for a few seconds, all the minor damage on it healing instantly as it howled.

"Oh, dear. Ballad, she's probably going to be even stronger now."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard the same stories." This was just _great_. Until Bit could get back from the Hover Cargo, he was the only one left. "Well, let's hope this won't be a repeat of what happened with Fury. Let's get her, Fox!"

"My name's Shineryuu, you know." With that, the Command Wolf of DOOM turned to face him, breaking into a run.

* * *

White armor came off in a series of clacks and whirs, leaving the Liger Zero bare as Bit called for the Jäger armor. The sides of the bay turned, covering the white bits, then exposing the aerodynamic blues of the Jäger. The naked Liger became rapidly un-naked, metallic thuds echoing as its new armor snapped into place.

_Liger Zero...Jäger_, the computer's voice announced, as if it weren't obvious, _CAS completed!_

"Go! Jägerrrrrr!" A yell from Bit and a blur of blue, and the Liger rocketed onto the battlefield, hitting the ground and breaking into a sprint without pause.

* * *

As if its earlier defeat at the hands of a Liger wasn't enough, the poor Shadow Fox was now getting beaten up by a lousy Command Wolf.

Okay, a Command Wolf with five million weapons on it fused to some freaky cat organoid.

But it was still embarrassing, darnit!

Bursts of fire from a CP-04 rocked the ground behind its feet as the Shadow Fox bounded forward, only to be grazed by fire by the Wolf's Wild Weasel Unit as it nearly materialized in front of him. How the heck was it moving so _quickly_? Ballad charged a Strike Laser Claw and leapt for the Wolf's neck, back, anything he could hit...and snagged empty air. He whirled the Fox around just in time to see the Wolf lunging towards him, its own claws ablaze. The Fox rolled out of the way, one of the claws nicking its left ear. For that matter, how the heck could it have so many weapons, too? The Command Wolf strutted around to face the dazed Fox. It seemed to be grinning. Grinning!

"There's a reason I call it the Command Wolf of DOOM!, you know."

"Ghhh...that..." The Shadow Fox echoed its pilot's anger, giving a jeering bark and hopping to its feet. It was far from dead yet.

Of course, all the inspiring thought in the world is useless without the firepower and speed to back it up, and the Shadow Fox fell again under heavy fire. It dodged for all it was worth in a stunning display of acrobatics, Ballad giving up on aiming and letting loose with the gatling gun every which way, hoping that he would hit the Wolf, perhaps expose some weakness, something about the stupid thing that didn't ooze overpowered perfection.

It evaded every shot with the grace only a giant metal wolf can possess, dancing from paw to paw. "Stop mocking me! Either take me out, or don't!" Ballad pushed the Fox to its max speed, again activating the Strike Laser Claw system. He was determined to at least damage the evil little thing, and he could tell the Fox was too. The Zoid seemed to radiate anger, if such a thing could be true.

"Okay, if you want." Shineryuu's voice came in reply, taking on an almost sing-song quality. Mocking him, mocking the Fox. The Command Wolf of DOOM! howled, Mach roared, and the pair gained speed too, heading straight for Ballad and his Fox.

Crash. Claws sizzling and screeching, the enraged yowling of the Fox, and a triumphant growl from Mach...it was over in a fraction of a second, both canine Zoids skittering into the dust and coming to a stop facing away from each other. The Command Wolf got up. The Fox didn't. Not to say that it didn't try—it lay there screaming Zoid-y curses at the Wolf, its left leg pretty much shot and its shoulder ripped apart. Attempts to struggle to its feet had only caused a stabilizer in its left hind leg to blow too, so it settled for a long string of not-very-nice words. Ballad raised an eyebrow, wondering where it had gotten _that_ one from...certainly not _him_. The Command Wolf only howled, giving Ballad the distinct impression it was laughing.

Too stubborn to give up and freeze, the Fox crawled towards the Wolf, propping up on one front leg. _Laugh at my pilot and me, will you?_ The targeting system for the gatling gun queeped—for once, it had a nice solid lock.

"Aaaeeeeiiiirroooo!" _Take this, fancypants!_

The Command Wolf of DOOM! rocked backwards as the first few rounds caught it unaware. "Hey!" With that, Shineryuu activated the Wolf's e-shield—pity, she'd been hoping to save that surprise for the Liger-pilot—effectively dispersing the rest of the Fox's last-ditch efforts.

"I think we're doomed."

"Arrrroooo."

"Hmmm...you're right, that was a bad pun." Blast. Bit talking to the Liger was rubbing off on him.

CP-04 cannons took aim on the Shadow Fox, who could only glare daggers in return. Daggers and swords and other sharp pointy objects. "Bye bye, Shadow Fo—"

"Stop!" Light cannon fire bounced off the Wolf, distracting it from Ballad...and the Jäger slamming into it and sending it flying a few seconds later helped too. "He's down, no need to keep shooting at him!" The Wolf backflipped and landed on its feet, caught off-guard again. Mach mentally kicked himself, but his partner was far happier about the idea. Hey, a challenge!

"Ah, so this is one of the famed Zero's CAS armors. Zero Jäger, is it not?"

"Yep! And I'd like to see your Wolf outrun me now!"

The Shadow Fox hated to admit it, but for once it was glad to have the armor-changing cat around. Liger'd show that Command Wolf a thing or two about being annoyingly strong and quick.

The two speedy Zoids faced each other, sizing each other up while the Liger growled faintly. In some unspoken sort of agreement, they took off at the same moment, the Liger dimly registering the Shadow Fox calling after it, telling it to kick that stupid Command Wolf's tail...well, not in those words, but the Liger Zero had never been the type to repeat such things.

The Jäger pulled up alongside the Wolf, mirroring that long ago battle with Jack Sisco and his Lightning Saix. "Get 'im!" The Jäger rammed the lighter Wolf, jolting it but not sending it out of its stride. The Wolf raised its e-shield and returned the favor, and followed it by increasing its speed even further.

Back in the downed Raynos, Jamie's eyes widened at the blinking figure on the display. "312 kph? How can a Command Wolf run like that?" It had to be the organoid. Oh, how he'd love to study one of those...preferably one that wasn't shredding his team at the moment. "315...317...that has to be wrong...it can't be!"

"Knnhh. Jäger, ion booster on! GO!" The Liger's boosters folded out, and the piercing whine of boosters powerful enough to propel a 100-ton cat at the crazy speed of 330 kph filled the air. The Liger rammed the Wolf again. Hey, if it worked with the Saix...

"Mach, show him where your name comes from." Shineryuu smirked.

The Wolf howled, although this time it sounded like the roar of an organoid too. Dragon wings of glowing blue unfolded from its shoulders, whipping out partway and seemingly fixing in place. They caught ablaze with energy as the Jäger's boosters had, alight in waves of brilliant neon blue along the back edges.

The seemingly impossible speed of the Command Wolf grew even more so, and Jamie's eyes widened along with it. "325...332...347 kph?! W...what? How? Even with an organoid, it should be tearing itself apart! Command Wolves just aren't _built_ for that kind of speed!"

Shineryuu's Command Wolf, it would seem, had never read that part of the manual.

"I don't...believe it." Bit was squished against the back of his seat. The only ground-based Zoid he'd met yet that could outrun Jäger like this was the Fury, and it was one of the most powerful Zoids built, not a Command Wolf. "Hang on, Liger...come on, you can outrun her."

"Rrrf..." _Can't..._ The Liger's 'voice' was pained. It, too, was being pushed to its limits, several alarms going off on the console that neither of them had noticed.

"Come on...since when do you...say can't?" Blast it all, his left eye was starting to tear from all the G-forces or whatever the console was beeping at him about. No time to wipe it away...he settled for blinking repeatedly instead.

_When I know that there is no way that I _can_. We need a new plan, I can't keep this up for much longer._

"Neither can I." His right eye was bothering him now too, and so was that warning about the boosters nearing some limit in big red text. Big red text usually qualified as Not A Good Thing.

_So how do we slow it down?_

"You've got guns, don't you? Even if we miss, we might get her to stop." Bit lowered the impact cannon on the Liger's belly, wondering if it would even work at these speeds. Only one way to—

"Bit, wait!"

Jamie's warning came too late, and the Liger fired, shots flying wildly off-target as the recoil sent it enough off-balance to be deadly at these speeds, and the Jäger executed a nice set of ungainly backflips in the dust, ion boosters automatically shutting off, but still enough to send it skidding through a sand dune and into a cliff face with a rather nasty smack.

"Bit? BIT! Are you okay!?"

"...ow."

"What did you think you were DOING? Geh...okay, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Ten."

"Oh, dear."

"Well, you held up both hands, and they each have five fingers. If you meant the ones pointing up too, there were three."

Jamie sighed. "Biiiit. Guys, he's fine."

The Liger, however, wasn't quite so fine...at least the Jäger bits weren't. One of the boosters was half-sheared off, and many various bits were otherwise damaged. The Liger growled in annoyance, shedding the armor, which fell to the ground with dull whumph-noises. Stretching, it found the rest of its systems to be pretty much intact, and roared a challenge to the Wolf.

_I may be naked, darnit, but I'm not done yet! Come and get me! ...wait, that sounded wrong._

"Huh?"

_Uh...never mind. Wolf headed our way, and quickly._

"On the count of three. One..."

Silently, the Liger crouched, claws lighting up in readiness for one last shot of its trademark attack, one last chance.

_Ni!_

The blur of blue that was the Command Wolf of DOOM at full speed streaked for the armorless Liger Zero with the confidence of one who is assured of certain victory, paws alight with Strike Laser Claw-glow too. Still the Liger stood there, waiting to pounce, as its blurred enemy drew closer, closer.

"Threeeeeee!"

And with that, it sprung, the Wolf still some distance away. It wasn't intending to meet it head on, no...and as it came back down, it was with a satisfying crash of metal, its claws snagging the hindquarters of the Wolf, ripping through one side of the Wild Weasel Unit and slicing into its right leg, tearing off the outer armor.

The Wolf bayed furious insults to the sky as the Liger touched down, the remains of a piece of leg armor fairly disintegrating beneath its paw as it landed. Without its armor, the vents for Strike Laser Claw left the sides of its face glowing, taking on the appearance of a flaming ruff as it turned to face the Wolf, not taking the system offline for a second.

"Che...clever pilot, aren't you, Cloud?" The Wolf limped to its feet, having sustained its first real damage in the fight yet. Its huge speed advantage was obviously gone, although it still moved far more smoothly than a Command Wolf with a torn-apart leg should.

_The leg...the organoid is holding it together. Look, Bit!_

Sure enough, the joints at the top of the thing were shining with the same blue glow as the Wolf's 'wings' had been. That probably meant Mach was focusing more of his efforts on that than on strengthening the Wolf. Even as he watched, though, the leg looked to be slowly healing...or was that a trick of the light?

"Liger, let's go, NOW!" The feline Zoid need no encouragement, and before the words had even left its partner's mouth, it was headed for the temporarily disabled Wolf, still-on Strike Laser Claws two burning points of light by now.

"Surprise." The Wolf's leg collapsed, but in an orderly enough way that it changed the motion into a roll, showing just where the energy had gone. A rather nasty-looking blade of the stuff lanced out from its side—an instant Blade-Liger-in-a-box sort of thing.

"Oh, cr—"

Claw hit blade.

Energy overloaded, and things went boom.

Mainly, the Wolf's side, and almost every system in the Liger's right leg. The cat Zoid hit the ground hard, yowling as sparks crackled along its torso, nearly everything else shutting down to prevent the damage from spreading. The Command Wolf fared no better, combat system going down seconds after its own attack backfired on it, and Mach unfusing from the core to flop tiredly on the ground in a tangle of dark blue limbs.

_Ow..._ The Liger echoed its pilot's earlier sentiments. At least the Wolf was down, Bit and his friends were safe...must...regenerate systems.

"Liger, you okay?" The only response Bit got was a notice on the screen:

_Your Zoid is currently under a protective system shutdown. Please contact the nearest Republic base using the emergency comm system backups. Thank you, have a nice day, and remember to buy Celeste brand systems, the most reliable on Zi!_

"Ehhh?" He tilted his head to the side and blinked. "Well, so long as you're okay." Bit fumbled for the manual release on the cockpit, only to have it jam with a loud click-snap. "Oh, come onnn." More jiggling, more clicking, no cockpit opening.

The battle over and the adrenaline rush subsiding, Bit now realized that his eyes itched, the harness was making his shoulders hurt...and most importantly, he was really, really hungry. And he was stuck in Liger's cockpit, where the amount of available food was probably limited to the crumbs on the floor from when he'd been eating chips. "Heeelllp! Guys, I'm stuck!"

"It's not like we can get over there, you idiot!"

"I'll get him out. First challenge I've had in years, can't let him stay stuck in a cockpit and not say hello."

So, the pilot of this Command Wolf of DOOM! thing—Shineryuu, whoever that was—was finally going to show her face. Ballad couldn't resist focusing in on the Wolf's cockpit, if only to put a face to someone who could pilot a Command Wolf so insanely well, even if they did seem like something of a jerk.

His dislike for the unknown pilot melted away the second he saw her, however. She had flowing, silky mahogany hair, glistening in the rays of the sun while delicate highlights of cinnamon and bronze cascaded down to her shoulders. She was beautiful, like a delicate rose growing alone in a tangled garden of weeds, or a rainbow after a gentle shower on a hot summer day.

(Oh, look, an author's note in the middle of the story for no reason, disrupting the flow to say something unimportant...mainly, AHH, MY BRAIN, it hurts to write like that! Thank you.)

Bit fiddled idly with the cockpit release, as if poking at it would make it magically work. He hoped the wolf-pilot was serious. He didn't feel like being stuck in here until Liger regenerated enough to let him out or the Hover Cargo could get to them.

_Knock, knock_. Well, that had to be her. Bit looked to the right and saw a girl...brownish hair, close to his age—hey, woah, the organoid-thingie! It reminded Bit somewhat of a sleek dark blue Lightning Saix. The armor was entirely different and it didn't have a big gun-thing on its back, but the head was kind of like one, with those neat silver teeth.

"I wish people wouldn't stare at me like that."

It could _talk_? Problems forgotten for the moment, Bit leaned farther over. If not for the harness, he probably would have been pressing his face to the cockpit glass. "Hey, cooool! You speak Japanese!"

"...yes, Mach does. Now, do you want me to get you out of there, or not?"

"Oh! Eh he...yes!"

* * *

And so it was that the members of Team Blitz now were talking to this young woman—Shineryuu—around the table. Well, at least they were trying to talk...it's kind of hard to strike up a conversation with someone who was only recently shredding your Zoid.

Bit was more interested in Mach, as was Doc, whom Mach had already threatened to bite twice if he didn't stop poking him saying how amazing and shiny and rare he was. Rinon seemed to be only glaring at Shineryuu for now, although anyone who knew her could tell you she was going to explode any minute. Jamie was trying to think of what to say and generally acting nervous, especially after Mach moved to sit next to him to avoid being poked.

What about Ballad, you say? Well, he was a different story altogether...a rather out-of-character one, at that. He merely sat gazing at Shineryuu with anime-ish hearts in his eyes, which Bit finally noticed when Mach moved. "Erm." He waved a hand in front of Ballad's face. The man didn't even blink. Well, that wasn't like him.

"You CHOPPED THE LEG OFF MY GUN SNIPER, and now you want to be our FRIEND? Couldn't you have just said that FROM THE START, YOU IDIOT?"

"I had to test you. See if you were worthy. And I don't just want to be your 'friend', I want to join your team."

"WHAT IS _THAT_ SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?"

"My, we have a short temper."

"GRAAAH!"

"Um...Rinon, please don't strangle our guest."

*smack!* _*thud*_

The rest of Team Blitz stared in shock. Not only had someone gotten the upper hand on Rinon, they had slapped her...and knocked her clean to the floor. She sat there, confused, holding the side of her face and looking as if she were going to cry.

"Hey, you okay?" Bit held out a hand to pull her up, confused by how oddly everyone was acting.

"I guess I am...now." Rinon gave him a look similar to Ballad's vacant stare earlier before turning to glare again at Shineryuu.

Bit tilted his head to one side. Was there some sort of giant-anime-heart-eyes syndrome going around, or something?

Shineryuu went on to explain that she was an orphan—her parents had been killed when she was four, possibly by Backdraft, because they're evil—and she had found her Zoid wandering around in the desert. It had been just a plain Command Wolf at the time, and she'd taught herself how to pilot it while learning to survive in the wilderness, fight off bandits (also evil) and bake apple pie. When she was seven she'd already figured out how to repair and build Zoids using nothing but rocks (special pointy rocks) and tools she'd managed to save from her father's beloved collection of "nifty obscure Zoid-related tools of the ages". She'd run into Mach one day, who had no idea what he was doing here, of all places, and the two had become inseparable friends. Mach had helped her build the Command Wolf of DOOM! as well, evolving it further from the base of her old Command Wolf.

"That's so...inspirational! Waaaaah!" Mach rolled his eyes as Ballad stated going on and on about how amazing the whole story was, and was soon joined by the Doc and Jamie. Raising a paw to his face, he pretended to bash himself on the head...which Bit of course saw and found quite funny.

"You had BETTER not be laughing at her story, Bit!"

"What, you're on her side now? Owowow...hey, I'm just kidding, besides, I was just laughing at Mach."

Rinon looked over at the organoid, who sat perfectly still, his face a mask of shiny blue feline grace. "Uh-huh. Sure."

Bit stuck his tongue out at Mach and then turned to Shineryuu. "Hey, can you make one of those pies you mentioned now? I'm hungry."

"It's a bit late for pie, but I do know how to make 39 different kinds of cookies. Let's see...almond pistachio fudge ripple, cranberry orange supreme..."

"Can you make chocolate chip ones?"

"Yes, but that's so mundan—"

"Oooh! Ooooh! Chocolate chip! I wanna help! Can I eat some of the chocolate chips if I help?"

"Hey, if he gets chocolate, I want to help too!" Rinon insisted, followed by the Doc and everyone else.

"...wouldn't it just be easier to buy some chocolate chips and be done with it?" Mach said, not understanding how being potential cookie-ingredients made them taste any better.

"NO!"

"Fine, fine."

* * *

"Pass me the chocolate chips, would you? No, you can't eat them, or we won't have enough for a fourth batch."

"We wouldn't be making one if someone didn't keep _eating_ them the minute they came out of the oven."

"Yeah, who knew Doc could do that? I mean, even _I_ don't eat them when they're that hot." Bit sat watching the Doc peel another cookie off the sheet—still steaming. "Do—"

"Shh! This...requires...concentration!" The Doc juggled the cookie from hand to hand for a few seconds as he said this, finally tossing it into the air and catching it in his mouth. "It's like those people who walk on hot coals: you have to do it correctly, or...well, it's painful. I'd be happy to teach you how, if you'd like."

"No, you're not eating any more of these." Shineryuu brandished a mixing spoon, holding it as one might a sword. "Now, are you going to either leave or help, or am I going to have to demonstrate my deadly spoon fighting technique with which I once vanquished 17 bandits and their dog?"

"Erm."

"EEEE-_YAGH!_"

"What was _that?_" Jamie said. "It almost sounded like—"

"BALLAD! AH HA HA! Your _hair!_" Bit nearly collapsed laughing as the source of the scream entered the room...with a hairbrush rather firmly tangled in his hair at a rather odd angle.

"This. Is. Not. FUNNY."

"Yes it is!"

"Grrrrh. It's all your fault, too, mister let's spill a whole bag of flour so it gets in Ballad's hair."

"Hey, I don't see how that got the hairbrush stuck like that."

"Easy. I tried to brush it out."

"Erm." Bit backed up a few steps, not liking how Ballad was slowly walking towards him like some sort of unfriendly animal closing in for the kill.

"Yeah, well, I tried getting the brush wet after that. You know what happens when you mix flour and water?"

"Hey, you're the one that forgo—GAK!"

"Why is everybody trying to strangle each other? Ballad, please, stop that." Jamie, not sure what else to do, moved aside for Shineryuu...who merely shoved a cookie in Ballad's mouth.

"Mmmph." Releasing his hold on Bit's neck and grabbing the cookie before it could fall, Ballad chewed for a few seconds. "Mmm, chocolate." Bit quickly moved out of his reach, lest he remember the hairbrush. "I suppose it was more of my fault."

Ballad apologizing like that? Things sure were getting strange, Bit thought, relaxing a little.

"Peace via chocolate..." Mach remarked idly as he watched flour fall from his paws. Being able to burn things off with energy was a useful skill at times. Too bad he couldn't teach it to humans. Oh, that Doc guy was trying to steal a cookie again. Mach shifted and 'accidentally' stepped on the edge of his coat, and then sat pretending not to notice. That'd show him.

"Come on, Ballad, I'll get that brush out of your hair." Shineryuu said, grabbing the taller man by the arm. "Jamie, you take over. Mach, the Doc's going to fall if you don't stop that." She then left, dragging an again heart-eyed Ballad by the arm. Mach grumbled and lifted his paw.

"How long until they're done? Oh, wait...we have to turn the oven back on, right?"

"Ack, Rinon, you didn't need to turn it off in the first place." Jamie was even more convinced he was the only one here with any common sense.

"Bit, leave the flour ALONE."

"What makes you think I'll drop it again—whoops! AAH!"

* * *

The chaos that the Team Blitz kitchen had become faded to quiet around midnight, the mess having been left for someone (Jamie, doubtless) to clean up in the morning. Bit, covered in flour, had left a trail of white footprints leading into the bathroom, and was now asleep on a couch, his hair still rather spikey...well, more so than usual. Rinon was sitting in a chair watching TV and throwing magazines from a nearby stack at Bit when he snored. Jamie had been trying to watch the same show, but had passed out in his chair, and was now sleeping half-falling out of it, with Mach's shoulder serving as a pillow. The organoid, being a cat, had not considered it worth moving over, and was now alternating between drowsing and glaring at the more noisy of the commercials. Ballad, hair fixed (if a bit frizzy) sat on the floor along with Shineryuu, who was discussing her joining the team with Doc. It seemed that she was here to stay.

* * *

_Hey, another match with Team Tigers? Haven't they learned they can't beat us? Oh, well. Woah, what's with Rinon? Kyaaa, Bit, she's gone crazy! Run away, run away! Next Zoids New Century Slash Zero, Romance and Neon-Yellow Saber Tigers! Run, Bit! Ready, FIGHT!_


	3. Romance and Neon Yellow Saber Tigers!

Chapter notes: 

I apologize to the artists whose songs I borrowed lyrics from for the songfic...scene...thing. Try and place the songs, if you want... 

Thanks to Karin for idea-help, and The Sh33p for Team-Tigers-character-help. Yay. 

Evil Shadow Fox = all Zinou's fault. *nods* 

* * *

__

Last time on Zoids New Century SLASH Zero (ooh, dramatic, isn't it?), there was another important battle thing. I hardly got to do anything, as usual, until this strange organoid came along...and now this equally strange pilot's joined our team? All these strange things happening at once... 

**Romance and Neon-Yellow Saber Tigers! Run, Bit!**

"Eh? Karaoke?" 

"You know, the thing where the songs play without words and you sing them?" Mach said from the other side of the table, watching in half-fascination as Bit managed to eat a rather large amount of food in a rather short amount of time. 

"I _know_ that..." Bit shoved another large piece of pancake in his mouth-Jamie had made the things for breakfast, somehow managing to clean the kitchen before anyone else had gotten up. "What I mean is...why karaoke?" He reached for the syrup. 

"I just thought it would be fun, that's all..." Shineryuu shrugged. "Anyone else want to go?" 

After convincing Bit that there'd be food, the team set off for a local karaoke restaurant/bar sort of thing. What one was doing located so close by and why they'd never noticed it before, no one was quite sure, but that wasn't important. 

Wandering in, the group looked around...there were a bunch of tables, a few random chairs, a stage...and food. Bit managed to find it right away, and started asking if they could order some. 

"You just _ate_, you nut..." 

"But I'm hungryyyy! Oooh, look, they have 7 kinds of cheese..." 

"Bit...why don't you just eat the breadsticks or something for now? You know, until us _normal_ people get hungry?" Rinon chucked one of the breadsticks at him, snickering as he managed to catch it in his mouth and start eating it before his hand was even up to catch it. 

"...what?" 

One everyone on the team had taken a seat, they began the rather difficult process of deciding who should try singing first. Well, more accurately, they had Mach close his eyes and point. He picked Ballad, who complained that the organoid had only chosen him so he could make some sort of joke relating to his name. Mach insisted he was innocent, and Shineryuu ended the whole thing by telling Ballad to go sing already, which he did. And danced, too...much to the amusement of the rest of the team... 

"Hey, I didn't know you could air guitar like that..." 

"...shut up. So I actually did have fun singing, so sue me." 

"Perhaps you should change your name t-" 

"_See?_ I _told_ you that organoid was just _waiting_ to do that! Come on, Mach, there's all sorts of jokes you could make about the name 'Bit', bother him..." 

"Hey! You!" someone at another table yelled. "Quit arguing with the talking cat and give the mic to someone else!" 

Ballad threw it at Mach, who ducked...and Shineryuu caught it. "Guess that means it's my turn..." She got up and walked to the stage. 

"Wait...talking cat?" The guy at the other table paused for a second, and then shrugged. That pretty lady was going to sing something... __

"Yesterday...all my troubles seemed so far aw-hey, stop that, you silly thing!" 

Shineryuu had only managed to sing the opening line before the karaoke machine switched to the next track...and yet, silence fell over the room-the sort of silence that only happens when either someone with a really beautiful voice is singing and everyone wants to listen, or the person singing is so horrible at it that everyone present is stunned. In this case, it was the former. __

"World serves its own needs 

Dummy, serve your own needs 

beated...muffin ox..." 

"...hey, what kind of lyrics _are_ these?" Shineryuu said, squinting at the screen. "'Unintelligible mumbling'? Er...next song?" 

Somewhere on everyone's favorite ominous Dark Continent, Nyx, a large creature stirred. Lifting a tooth-filled snout topped with purple horns, the Zoid from another time-and another continuity-growled. Why was it hearing what sounded like music? Never mind, the Gilvader decided, it would just go back to slowly healing and waiting for a plot hole big enough to fly away through. Its day would come. Eyes blazing a fearsome pink, it ground claws that could crush a Hound Soldier's head with one blow against the rock floor. Yes, someday...but for now, it would just listen to that pretty music... __

"No one will be watching us 

Why don't we d-" 

Shineryuu's singing was temporarily interrupted again as an employee with "Obligatory 'Censored!' Joke" painted on his uniform ran on stage, and quickly changed the disks. A new medley of songs started playing, and Shineryuu resumed her melodious singing... __

"I am he is you are he is you are me and we are all together, woah woaah..." 

If Mach had eyebrows, they would have furrowed in concentration. Wait a minute...how could Shineryuu be singing a song in English if all they could speak was Japanese? For that matter, what was English, and why was he thinking in it? 

Didn't matter anyway. The cat organoid shook his head a few times, clearing his thoughts. It was so distracting when one got on paths of thought like that. __

"There's no time to cry 

Happy, happy 

Put it in your heart where tomorrow shines 

Gold and silver shiiiine..." 

Ballad sat gazing adoringly at the singing Shineryuu. She had the most beautiful voice in the world, like the chorus of a thousand angels on a bright spring day. It rang to the depths of his soul, uplifting his very sense of being... 

"See, I told you...look, he's got those heart-eye things again!" Bit nudged Jamie with an elbow and pointed in Ballad's direction with another breadstick. 

Jamie looked. Sure enough, the man was staring at Shineryuu with...well, heart-shaped eyes. How was that even possible? People's eyes didn't just turn into random shapes at will. And if they did, Ballad was about the last person he'd expect to have them. "Maybe you're right about that crazy giant-anime-heart-eyes theory of yours..." 

No response. Bit seemed to have wandered off, and was now talking to Mach-Mach! "Boy, I know how I rate..." Depressed, Jamie reached absentmindedly for a breadstick...and found the basket gone. Bit had taken it, of course. "ARGH!" 

The only response he got was a few other random people nearby who weren't completely focused on staring at Shineryuu-what was the big deal about her singing, anyway? was to stare at him for a second and then go back to what they were doing...as usual. __

You're really getting overly angsty, Jamie... He sighed, drummed his fingers on the table a few times, and then finally shrugged. He'd live. Once the whole ooh-new-team-member-ness wore off, things would quiet down a bit, and people'd go back to ignoring him less. But he should at least get some of those breadsticks back. He was getting hungry. 

Shineryuu finished her song just as Jamie got out of his chair. "Well, looks like it's someone else's turn..." She smiled, showing teeth that Jamie was convinced were far too unnaturally bright and twirling the microphone idly in one hand. "No, not you, Ballad dear, you already had a turn...how about someone who hasn't?" 

Jamie realized that _he_ was currently standing up and quite visible, and his mind promptly went from whining that no one was paying attention to him to hoping feverently that Shineryuu _wouldn't_. So absorbed in thoughts of please-don't-make-me-sing-in-front-of-all-these-people-ness, Jamie didn't even hear Ballad's wistful mumble of "she called me dear..." as he plopped forward onto the table, head falling on folded arms. 

"How about you, Bit?" 

Ah, crisis averted. And what's more, he'd have a chance to reclaim his breadsticks...if there were any left. 

"Heh, why not? Bit bounced onto the stage, enthusiastic as ever...at least until he saw the lyrics. "Aw, man, I got some mushy love song!" 

"It's just random..." Shineryuu said, tossing him the microphone, and walking off stage. She sat down next to Ballad, who continued to stare at her with a look reminiscent of a lost puppy, or something else cute and fluffy with bigsadeyes of doom. "Er...could you stop that?" 

"Sorry!" 

"It speaks," Mach said. "Who would've thought?" Shineryuu shushed him. "This always seems to happen wherever we go..." The feline got in one last mumble before falling silent. He sat for a moment, finding Bit singing to be rather boring. 

...unlike Rinon, who was staring at him with the same heart-eyes that Ballad wore. Again. Trouble brewing, probably, but not of any concern to Mach, who merely yawned. 

Creeping closer to his target-his breadsticks, now apparently claimed by Rinon, Jamie again hoped he'd be ignored. Heart-eye-ified or not, stealing food from Rinon was rather like poking some animal with a bad temper and sharp teeth with a stick...it just wasn't a good idea, no matter how you sliced it. Ack, she was looking in his direction-quick, look innocent! Jamie sat down with lightning speed, his hands folding in his lap so as not to look like they had been reaching for the breadsticks. _Please don't hurt me... _

But it wasn't Jamie Rinon had been looking at, no...it was three rather familiar new arrivals, currently laughing at Bit's attempts to sing a love song without looking nauseated. 

"Hey, it's Team-" 

"Don't even think about it!" 

"I was going to say Tigers, honest!" Glad for a chance to stop, Bit had already put the microphone down and was now trying to convince some random guy in the front row to sing. 

"Sure you were...heyyy, free breadsticks!" 

"They're not free, look, they have little '50 yen' stamps baked into them..." 

"Sneaky..." 

"Hey, over here!" Bit was waving to them from one of the tables, one of those grins that his opponents would probably call 'stupid' on his face. 

"Well, do we go over there?" 

"Sure, why not?" Kirkland shrugged. "And stop eating those breadsticks, Lineback, we can't afford to spend any more money right now..." 

"Says the guy who just bought a bunch of custom weapons for his Saber Tiger?" 

"Which is why we're out of money!" 

The fuzzy jacket-clad team sat down at one of the two tables claimed by the Blitz, Omari putting his feet up on the table, much to Jamie's annoyance. Not that he said anything... 

"So, what do you want?" 

"I dunno, I was just bored. How are you guy-er, I wouldn't-" 

Too late...Rinon now had poor Lineback's wrist in a death grip. "Those are MY breadsticks. Do. Not. Touch. Thank you." 

"...ow." Wiggling his fingers, probably to see if they still moved, the Tigers member moved as far away from Rinon as was possible, muttering that the tables were too small. 

"Eh, she kind of has that effect on people-WAK!" Bit rubbed the back of his head. When would he learn to duck to the _side_ when he said things like that? 

Kirkland merely stared, taking a Mach-like 'just accept that these people are all crazy...' approach. This was the team that had won the Royal Cup? One with an apparent leader who was now finding it amusing to stick breadsticks in his mouth and go "lookit meeee, I'm a Saber Tiger!"? Well, they did say that the true geniuses were always a little crazy... 

CRASH! 

"Whoops...chair fell over...eh he he...no, Rinon, I'm fine, ack..." Rinon happened to be helping Bit off the floor...when he didn't exactly want to be helped...especially by someone with those scary heart eyes. "Hey, I was trying to ask them how they were doing, right, guys?" __

Please save me from the crazy lady, oh team that I've repeatedly beaten and called silly names...oh, fine... "Badly." 

"We keep losing. And out Tigers keep getting blown up in the process. And we're low on money. And I can't find my favorite pair of socks..." 

"Oh...er..." Bit wasn't quite sure to say...either to Omari, or Rinon, who was now clinging to his neck. "Let...go...please...hey, look...it's Harry, over there!" 

"Huh? Hey, where!?" 

"Byetalktoyoulater..." Bit, like any person with any sort of survival instinct, ran...and Rinon followed. 

Team Tigers just sat there, watching as they both ran back and forth. 

Finally, Lineback said something. "Team of psychos..." 

"Er...I'm still here?" 

"Sorry, kid...which one were you, again?" 

"Jamie...the one _everybody_ seems to forget is there." 

"Hey, another one with bad luck like us!" Kirkland chuckled bitterly and ducked the chair flying past his head. "She sure can throw things..." 

"Er...yeah...I don't really have bad luck as much as I don't seem to be there..." 

"Maybe you're just getting overshadowed by all your craz-er, unusual teammates, or something...dunno." 

"Not really that, either...unless you count her..." Bashing other people wasn't something Jamie did by nature, but he was getting a little sick of Shineryuu and her...perfect-ness. 

"Oh, you mean that annoying perfect lady?" 

"You know her?" 

"Eh, not really...she just _acts_ all overly-nicey-nice, like someone smiling and waving for a crowd when they'd rather go home...or something. Wouldn't trust her." 

"Me either..." 

Jamie didn't particularly trust Team Tigers, for that matter, but at least someone was listening to him. 

"I know you're in class S and we're not supposed to challenge you and blah blah blah, but how about a battle? You guys must have all sorts of spare cash right now..." 

Oh, so they were just trying to get money out of it. Jamie started to sigh, and then remembered his promise to himself to not be so darn angsty. "Yes...but..." 

"You wouldn't want us to be kicked out of the hangar we're renting now, would you? Those poor Saber Tigers, they'd have nowhere to go..." 

"You look like an idiot begging like that..." 

"Hey, shut up! I don't see you saving money, mister let's get a CP-02 even though it's really expensive!" 

"...and then not let us buy any breadsticks..." 

"All right, all right...I'll ask Doc. But what will you guys do for money if you lose?" 

Silence. 

"Uh...we didn't think of that," Omari said. "At least not yet." 

"Well...there was that one thing...that Doc of yours collects models, doesn't he?" Kirkland got up, and returned with a shopping bag he'd been carrying when they walked in. "They had these on sale." 

Kirkland was holding a Saber Tiger. Not just any Saber Tiger, mind you, but a vacuum metalized Saber Tiger. It looked to be gold and black, the sprues catching the light and sparkling on the finished wood of the table. 

"OOH! SHINY!" 

"Well, so much for having to find him..." Jamie watched Doc mysteriously manage to run across the crowded room in a matter of a couple seconds, and then sit down-where had he gotten a chair?- right in front of the shiny Tiger. 

"Where did you GET that?" 

And Jamie continued watching as the Doc agreed to a battle-of course-their money versus the Saber Tiger-he wasn't going to ask for anything else? No, of course not, not with a _shiny_ Zoid on the line... 

Jamie decided it might be a good idea if he went somewhere else before he started sighing again. 

"Hey, kid! You with the pointy hair! Why don't you give it a try?" __

Argh, no, I don'twanttosing... 

Luckily for Jamie, Rinon picked that moment to whack Bit over the head with a chair. Or, more accurately, the restaurant manager who just happened to look a heck of a lot like Bit from behind. 

"Oops, sorry, mister...I was trying to hit him-" 

"OUT. All of you, out. NOW. Once you've paid for all those breadsticks, that is..." 

The battle started that afternoon. How the required paperwork was filled out so quickly was unknown, although some might suspect that it might have had something to do with the workers at the ZBC not wanting to listen to the Doc go on and on about shiny things. 

Both teams arrived at about the same time...the Tigers on foot, er, paw...and the Blitz in the Hover Cargo-where else? Ballad refused to fight for a shiny Saber Tiger, and the Command Wolf of DOOM! still needed some new guns, so Jamie was stuck accompanying Bit and Rinon onto the field. 

This particular terrain was rather rocky...there were even a few cliffs off in the distance-pointy spires of rock that would have reminded a person of how Zi used to look long, long ago...if they were alive back then, anyway. But since no one present had been (or, in Mach's case, couldn't remember), it was a rather moot point. They were nice rocks no matter how you sliced it, but nobody was paying much attention to them. 

"Ready to lose this time?" Kirkland's Tiger roared as the judge landed, its pointy teeth catching the light...as did its new set of guns and missiles and whatnot. Better known as a CP-02 or an 'assault unit', it left the Tiger looking a good deal more ominous, without being overgunned. Unlike a certain other Zoid... 

"Yeah, right!" Rinon's Gun Sniper hissed at the Tiger-please, like anything like that could hope to compete with it in the 'overgunned' department? Well, there had been that other Tiger...but it was missing its head now, wasn't it? So there. 

The second the battle started, the Tigers scattered, each one running a completely different direction. Whether they had improved their tactics or they were scared was yet to be seen, but Team Blitz followed suit soon after. Bit took off after Kirkland's modified Tiger, and Rinon went after Omari's, probably because it was running more slowly than the other two... 

"Well, guess I get that one..." Jamie caught up with Lineback's Tiger easily, and fired a few shots in its direction. The Tiger dodged and continued running, not bothering to return fire. 

"Hmmm...wonder why he's not attacking me..." Jamie scanned the terrain ahead-rocks. Big, tall rocks. That one part looked almost like a canyon...perfect for blinding yellow Saber Tigers trying to avoid flying things. "So that's what he's up to...well, can't let him get there..." Jamie sent the Raynos flying lower, swooping ahead of the Tiger and grazing it with beam gun fire...not enough to be dangerous, but certainly enough to stop it for a few seconds. Lineback responded by spurring the Tiger back into a run, drawing it ever closer to the rocks. 

"Please don't crash..." Jamie muttered, sending the Raynos into another low-to-the-ground pass, this time at a high enough speed that the Tiger was buffeted by a sonic boom, rocking it to one side and making it lose its footing. 

"Hey!" Lineback shot back this time, turning the Tiger around and firing what missiles it carried into the flight path of the slowly turning Raynos. Jamie dodged as best as he could, tilting the Raynos slightly to one side or the other and sending it half-wobbling out of the way. Leveling the green Zoid, he again swept for the Tiger, skimming dangerously low over the sand. 

While it would have been a far better idea to shoot at the Raynos to try and throw it off-balance, Team Tigers members weren't exactly known for being masters of the finer points of strategy...at least when they were angry or frustrated with things like a pesky Raynos that kept knocking their Tiger off its feet. 

Nay, Lineback opted for sending his Tiger racing up the nearest rock and leaping straight into the air. 

"Dodge _this!_" 

"Aaaaaah!" Jamie, on the other hand, was quite familiar with the concepts of gravity and momentum-you couldn't pilot a high-speed aerial Zoid and not be. It was too late to do much of anything except try and pull up in time...too late...this wasn't going to be fun... 

The Tiger's claws scraped the Raynos' belly and caught on its legs, and the green Zoid shrieked as momentum pulled it one way and the Tiger the other, and the pair was sent tumbling to the ground. The Tiger touched down first, sliding on its back and the shoulders until it slammed into another rock and exploded quite spectacularly. The Raynos-minus both of its legs and part of its tail-ripped free with a screech and continued on, skipping along like some bizarre rock until it finally hit a patch of sand and stopped, spinning slowly. 

"Uhh...ouch." Jamie shook his head, amazed that the Raynos had even survived that _mostly_ intact. Sure, it was missing its legs, but he'd gotten better at fixing things like that lately. The Raynos stopped spinning, finally, and the smoking mess of Saber Tiger bits reminded him of the whole explosion thing. "You okay?" he said, glad the comm still worked. 

"Yeah, sure...I'm used to overly dramatic explosions. You build up a resistance to them after a while, you know?" 

"Yaaah!" Rinon's Gun Sniper took to the air, boosters flaring and sending it into a seemingly impossible bound above the Tiger's head...then again, it already defied gravity...what was a little more impossibility added to that? It rocketed downwards, hiss-roaring and slamming into the Tiger's back with a clatter of breaking guns and wobbling gatlings...woah, off-balance, not good- 

Omari sent the wounded Tiger whirling around as the Sniper fell, and saber teeth found hold in the Gun Sniper's tail. He whipped the Tiger's head to one side, and Rinon discovered that hey, even Gun Snipers with a ton of weapons on them fly rather nicely... 

"What, you aren't going to do that hover-thing again? Hah..." 

"Gnhhh...take THIS!" 

Even Gun Snipers with a ton of weapons now lying in undignified positions on their backs can still _use_ said weapons if their pilots don't care at all about aiming them... 

"Aw, crud..." 

Omari's Tiger went down in a crazed barrage of Rinon-fire (Bit had suggested numerous times that it should be its own word, but it hadn't been very well-received), managing one last claw swipe before its systems froze...which just _so_ happened to smack right into the Gun Sniper's left leg, tearing it half-off and taking the Sniper out of the battle as well. 

"Okay, this isn't FUNNY anymore! That's the THIRD time someone's chopped its leg off!" 

"Well sor-_ry_," Omari said, swatting at a few sparks on the Tiger's console. Great, it was going to need a whole new display thingie. "It's not like I could really aim...then again, you didn't seem to be able to either..." 

"I HIT you, didn't I!?" 

For once, the Liger Zero wasn't fairing well. The terrain was rocky, so any speed advantage it would have had was lost, leaving Bit facing an opponent who was about as agile as he was...and had all sorts of nice missiles and guns, when he only had two distance weapons...one of which was at the end of the Liger's tail and of rather little use. 

"Hold _still_, will you?" 

"Not on your life." 

Bit ducked out of reflex more than anything, and the Liger followed, missiles sailing over its head. Returning fire with the tail gun-probably the first time he'd ever used that thing, Bit didn't bother to turn around. Faking first right and then left as more fire headed his way, he took off in a sudden sprint for the Hover Cargo. 

"Be back in a minute!" 

"Hey! Oh, no you don't!" Kirkland's Tiger gave chase, even though once out of the rocks the Liger easily outdistanced it. "You're not gonna do that armor-changing thing again if I can help it!" 

The Liger fired its oft-forgotten tail gun again, one of the shots grazing the Tiger's foot and causing it to trip. Kirkland swore as the Liger bounded into the Hover Cargo...doubtless to get that pointy bladed armor. 

But that wasn't what Bit had in mind...nay, he was going to fight fire with fire...er, missile with missile. And big huge hybrid cannons. 

The Hover Cargo's side opened, revealing the boxy green form of a different armor altogether... 

"Let's go...PANZER!" 

The aforementioned Panzer hopped off the Hover Cargo, gold claws sinking deep into the sand. The ground seemed to shake as it shuffled forward...heck, it probably did shake, with how much the cat Zoid weighed. 

"This isn't a good thing, is it..." 

"No." 

The ground exploded around Kirkland's Saber Tiger, the bright-yellow Zoid leaping every which way as the Panzer fired, hoping he could outlast the thing, that it would overheat...yeah, sure, that'd work. One missile, two missiles, 25 missiles heading right for him... 

"Crud!" Flipping the missile launcher forward and bracing the Tiger, Kirkland countered as best as was possible with fire from everything a CP-02 had...which was enough to shoot down two more barrages of missiles. 

It was also still not enough, it seemed. _Not another ream of these things...ream? Man, I should've never taken that office job for those weeks after the Royal Cup...they're missiles, not typing paper...woah! _

Luckily for Kirkland, his Saber Tiger was rather sick of getting blown up. And it didn't really care very much that its pilot was currently thinking about typing paper, no, it wanted out of the way of all those big explodey things heading its way...so it had done the only logical thing-jumped straight up in the air. 

"Hey, I didn't know it could jump like that!" 

"Look out!" __

Ah, yes, the hybrid cannons...oh, great...the Tiger jumped again, this time to the left, the beams still grazing it and sending it tumbling end over end. 

"Today just isn't my day...then again, it never has been, ever since we first fought YOU!" Kirkland's Tiger was back on its feet, roaring angrily and looking rather as fearsome as a neon-yellow cat can. 

The Panzer turned to face it, its feet gouging deep furrows of compressed sand. "Like your bad luck is all my fault? Okay, heh, so there was the meow-meow thing..." 

Kirkland muttered not-very-nice things under his breath...the Panzer still looked to be far from overheated, and if he ran, it'd just keep sending volley after volley of those missiles after him. "No place to go but forward, it seems. Yaaaah!" 

Bit fired the hybrid cannons again as the Tiger sprung, heedless of the damage it might take. It plunged straight into the beams, cutting through them for a brief second, and then, BOOM... 

The smoke cleared, showing the expected victor-the Liger, of course, standing tilting slightly to one side. Mainly, because a rather scorched and not-very-yellow-any-more Saber Tiger dangled from its right shoulder, teeth clamped quite firmly into the Liger's armor, and command system quite frozen. 

"Battle, all over! Winner..." 

"...not us. Man, I'm getting sick of this..." Kirkland's Tiger fell to the ground as the Liger shed its armor and bounced away to the Hover Cargo, happy to be rid of the heavy stuff. 

"Me too. Hey, you know, seeing your Tiger jump around like that gave me an idea..." 

"Do tell..." Kirkland muttered, attempting to coax the Tiger's systems to work enough to get its teeth out of the piece of Liger armor. Finally, the thing gave a weak _mrrr..._, and spat the Panzer-bit out, before returning to its system-shutdown state...this time, with the cockpit lights out, to Kirkland's annoyance. "Especially if it doesn't involve us losing over and over...again." 

"Well, you know how they have people who do stunts and things...you know, like at fairs? D'you ever see _Zoids_ doing that?" 

"Omari, I think you might be onto something there..." 

Team Blitz returned home triumphant...at least the Doc did. He was the only who had won anything, after all. He had managed to put the Saber Tiger together before they had even dragged the Gun Sniper and Raynos back to the Hover Cargo, and had been having it "run" around on all the consoles. It was now going to meet the other shiny Zoids...what fun! 

Ballad mumbled something about having a headache and needing coffee, and proceeded to wander off. The rest of the team did so too, in their own way...leaving Mach sitting in the hall. 

"I think I missed something..." He stood and wandered away himself. "When in Rome..." 

Tired from the battle (the Panzer always made the cockpit too hot for his liking), Bit flopped down on his bed. Sighing, he leaned back over the edge. Dust...more dust...half a bag of pretzels (soon gone), and a superball. Time to try the how-many-times-can-I-bounce-it-off-the-ceiling game... 

Nothing if not easily amused, Bit moved to the edge of the bed and pitched the thing against the floor. Up...down...up...down...whoops, there it went...into the wall, off a stack of CDs, into Rinon's head... 

Wait, that last one wasn't good... 

"BIT! You moron, I come here to compliment you on today's battle, and you whack me in the head with a...with a...superball with glitter and a little Shield Liger inside it?" 

"Compliment...?" It had to be a trap. Bit started slowly edging off the bed, ready to run... 

"Yeah, silly..." She walked in and say down next to him. Definitely a trap, he decided, and continued edging away, towards the door. 

"That was so cool how you blew up that Saber Tiger! I love exploding things..." 

"Erm..." She was pausing like she was thinking of what to say, time to get out of here... 

"And I wuv _you!_" 

Bit blinked. Nay, he didn't just blink, he stalled. Froze. When his brain finally stopped exhibiting the mental equivalent of a test pattern, it managed to reply: 

"'Wuv'? Is that even a word-GAK!" 

Ballad sat peacefully on one foot of the Shadow Fox. Taking a break from repairing the thing, he was enjoying a nice cup of coffee. 'Was' being the operative word. 

"BALLAD! HELP! YOU'VE GOT TO HIDE ME!" 

Sip. "All right, Bit, what'd you do now?" 

"NOTHING! SHE'S GONE CRAZY!" 

Sip. "And this is new?" 

"SHE TRIED TO _KISS_ ME!" 

A raised eyebrow. Ballad paused for a second, watching Bit hop from foot to foot and generally act nervous. "Mmm...fine...you can hide on top of the Fox..." 

No sooner had Bit climbed onto the Fox's head than Rinon ran into the hangar, demanding to know his location. Bit merely sat as quietly as he could on top of the cockpit, not finding this amusing in the least. The Shadow Fox found it quite funny, however, and kept tilting its head just enough that Bit'd have to frantically cling to one of its ears to avoid falling. 

"Have you seen Bit? You'd BETTER know where he is..." 

"Of course I've seen him. I have eyes, you know..." 

"Grrrhhh...that's NOT what I meant! Have you seen him RECENTLY?" 

"Recently...such a relative term.." Ballad stood and took another sip of his coffee. Luckily for Bit, Rinon didn't notice his foot sticking out over the edge of the Fox's face for a few seconds as it tried to tip him off again. "Stop thaaaat..." he hissed. "Meanie..." 

"Ugh! You're hopeless!" She turned to storm out of the hangar, and then paused. "Oh, and your stupid Fox keeps twitching its head and making this weird noise. There's probably something wrong with it." With that, she was gone, doubtless to bother poor Jamie as to where Bit had run off to. 

"She's gone. And you owe me, Bit. Bit?" 

"Waaugh!" Bit's hand slipped, and he slid off the Fox's face, landing next to its paw-and Ballad. "Owowow...that thing tried to kill me!" 

"It's doing its job, then." 

Giving Ballad a wary look, Bit slowly got to his feet and started to leave. 

"Aren't you forgetting something?" 

"Okay, okay, fine...you can have half of my prize money from this battle." 

"Nice try." 

"Next one?" 

"Better." 

Casting one last suspicious glance at the Shadow Fox-it seemed to be smirking, the evil thing-Bit left to go hide someplace better. Preferably someplace that had already been searched. Or that had those kind of doors they had back in the old wars that you could ram a Zoid into and it'd bounce off, even if it exploded and stuff...yeah, that'd do it. 

Back in the hangar, Ballad chuckled as he sat back down on the Shadow Fox's paw. If this kept up, it'd certainly be profitable...or funny, at the least. 

__

Harry's here? Again? Oh, goodie, that always means lots of noise. I don't like noise. Don't tell me we're fighting Vega again, too? We are? Oh, dear...quick, Liger, get that new shiny armor! Next time on Zoids New Century SLASH Zero...Dragon Revived! Zero Flauschig! Ready, FIGHT! 


	4. Dragon Revived!

I have nothing against Harry. This is, however, a fic poking fun at things that include, say, character bashing. And since he's one of the most-bashed characters, guess what happens to him :p. It's all in good fun, though, and I'll give him a nice Zoid to make up for it.

* * *

Somewhere on Zi...okay, near the Team Blitz base...would you believe really close to the Team Blitz base? Okay, really close to the Team Blitz base (that just doesn't sound as dramatic, though!), a large Zoid raced across the sand. Even though it was morning, it somehow remained in dramatic shadow, much as Shineryuu and Mach had.

Not knowing its importance to the plot, the sleek Zoid galloped on, moving with a distance-eating lope typical of the Earth species that had long ago given its predecessor its name. Not that it knew anything about that, either. It was more concerned with the fact that it was running a bit faster than it would have liked. Switching its cooling systems on, it rumbled to its pilot, who of course didn't listen. Hmph. He sure could have a one-track mind sometimes.

Silver claws continued to strike the earth, and the angular white Zoid continued its run. Better than taking on giant killer Zoids, it supposed, which is how it had ended up trashed and then chopped up and used to evolve into what it was now and then sold to this nut years later. Hmmm. Then again, the Zoid decided, it was more than capable of going off on tangents itself.

* * *

Yet Another Excerpt From "Vega's Stupid Boring Diary Thingie":

_Finally, they fixed Fury, but now the stupid ZBC is taking forever to decide if I should be let in their whole battle thing. Bah, I bet they're just afraid I'd beat everyone. It's not my fault I'm in the whole Backdraft mess, I just wanted a good Zoid to fight with. I'm not going to abandon my partner, or something._

We've been working on that whole telepathic communication thing, since it's handy in a battle, so I thought it could be from farther away, too. Got nothing better to do. I think we need to work on controlling it or something, because someone in the hanger is listening to this annoying station on the radio, and he's singing along in his head and it's driving me NUTS! Nooo...not this song again...

* * *

The mysterious Zoid drew ever closer to the Blitz base, although now the dramatic shadow on the thing had fallen somewhat, and you could see it was a canine of some sort. And since it was larger, any Zoid fanatic could immediately place it for what it was...but of course, we can't let on that the mystery Zoid and pilot happened to be a König Wolf and one Harry Champ. Uh, oops. Never mind. Anyway, Harry and his nice shiny new König Wolf continued on their merry way to the base. My, that's redundant. Where else would they be going, out for tea with a squad of Redler pilots?

* * *

Back at said base, Team Blitz's members were enjoying a nice, calm day for once. No food had been stolen, no coffeemakers exploded, no viewscreens smashed...and there wasn't a battle or anything else exciting scheduled that day. Of course, that did lead to some problems.

"I'm booored." Bit sat on the couch staring up at the oh-so-fascinating ceiling, wishing he had his Shield Liger superball to bounce on it. But it had disappeared since last evening, and he wasn't about to ask Rinon where it'd gone. He'd ended up sleeping in the Liger's cockpit, since it was the only Zoid he trusted to not fling him on the floor or something evil. Well, he trusted the Raynos, kind of, but he didn't really know it all that well either. Come to think of it, his back hurt. Cockpits weren't very comfortable to sleep in. Nope, not at all.

"HEY! Bit, did you hear anything I just said?"

Aaah! There she was! And she was mad at him!

"Um, eh he...I think I heard someone at the door, berightback." Bit skittered off to the door, fully intending to escape. However, when he opened it, he found a now rather confused Harry.

"Hey, how'd you know I was here?"

"Er, long story—woah, cool! What's that?"

Harry turned around to see the Wolf only a few feet away, leaning down in an attempt to see in the door. "Ack, no! Get back over there, you! You're supposed to be a surprise!"

"What's supposed to be a surprise? Oh, it's _you_."

"Come on, movemovemovemove...ack!" Harry had been pushing the Wolf's snout away from the door—or trying to, rather, and it had decided that now would be a good time to lift its head and make him fall over. "Oh, Rinon! You're here! Um."

"If that Zoid's for me, I don't want it. It looks annoying, like you."

"It's not for you! Unless you want it, anyway. Oof!" The Wolf had whacked him with its nose. "I came here to challenge you guys to a battle! And to see you, of course...my honey."

"Go away. I hate you! And take that stupid whatever it is with you!"

"It's a König Wolf, the king of wolf-type Zoids. Fitting, don't you think? And it's not stupid, it has an AI system almost as advanced as those in Zoids like _your_ Liger Zero!" Harry added, turning towards Bit.

"I thought the only wolf-type Zoids were Command Wolves anyway." Bit said, blinking as the König Wolf turned to stare at him too.

"So? And if you don't want to fight, maybe 5 times the prize money and all the paperwork already being done would change your minds?"

"Money?"

"Paperwork already done? And oooh, shiny!"

"Well, looks like the Doc is convinced...and Ballad too. Where's Shineryuu and Jamie? Oh, well, I'll go look for them—"

"Oh no you don't, Bit _sweetie_. You're not going anywhere..." Rinon grabbed Bit by the arm and dragged him back to the gathering. Harry, of course, went nuts at the word 'sweetie', and ended up being held in mid-air by the König Wolf, which looked as if it were as eager to escape as Bit.

"Why you...geh...PUT ME DOWN!...so, do you accep—OOF!" The Wolf had done as it was asked...or, more accurately, dropped Harry.

"Yeah, sure!" The Doc agreed before Rinon could protest.

"All right, then!" Harry wasn't about to give anyone time to change their minds, and quickly jumped back into the Wolf's cockpit. "Oh, yeah, one more thing."

"If it involves my name and the word 'date', I don't want to hear it."

"But—"

"Aha! I knew it! Now GET LOST!"

Harry shrugged sadly, and then quickly perked back up. "Okay, fine. But I'll be seeing you soon! Ah ha ha!"

And with that, the König Wolf was off, this time at a full run.

"Sheesh, I was just going to ask if she wanted to borrow the book I was reading."

_"Raoooo."_

"Okay, and the date thing, but still. She could've let me finish my sentence."

_"Rfff."_

"No, I DON'T want you to bite her head off! DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!"

No one is quite sure how Zoids can create the whole anime 'sweat drop' effect, but they can. And the König Wolf was managing to do so quite well.

* * *

Back at the base...again...Rinon had decided to pass the time making a "list of reasons why we hate Harry". Bit, puzzled, had asked why, at least until Rinon threatened to chuck his Shield Liger superball in the garbage disposal (how cruel!). He had the promised to shut up and run off to his room to hide it...and later was found to have climbed out a window, doubtless to escape.

Time dragged on. Mach got sick of the list-making and ran off as well, people drank coffee, and no one noticed the Doc was gone, off working on some ever-so-secret project.

"Hey, is that one of those CAS things?"

Alas, for it seemed nothing was to remain secret today.

"Hey, didn't you see the 'keep out' sign?"

"When you're trying to avoid people, it's always a good idea to hide places like that." The organoid tilted his head to one side. "What're you going to call that thing when it's done?"

"Well, it actually is almost done, it just needs paint and some finishing touches." The Doc was obviously delighted to have an audience that wouldn't go babbling or wanting to test it out on the Liger early, and he cheerfully started pointing out all sorts of thing about the new armor. Mach zoned out, his concentration returning in time to hear: "...and I think I'll call it...the Flauschig!"

_Does their whole family go on and on like this? I should meet that Blade Liger the Zoids here talk about and ask it if that Leon fellow does this too._

* * *

Harry arrived home in record time, probably because the Wolf was a lot faster than his older Zoids. And it could stop a lot faster, too.

_"Grrrr."_

"Learn to slow down? But I just came up with idea for a love poem to write and Idon'thaveanypaper!" Harry dashed off, leaving the Wolf standing outside the entrance to the hangar. It decided this wasn't a problem so long as it didn't rain, and switched its cooling systems to full. It didn't like long runs.

"I wonder if we should bring it back in."

Robots?

"Yes, I think we should. But then, YOU wanna try and get it to move?"

Noisy robots. Those must be the ones Harry had talked about, the ones that were going to be piloting the other Zoids. Well, the Wolf didn't think much of _them_. One noisy person was enough. It lowered its head and growled.

_"Be quiet, you."_

"AAAAH! It's gonna eat us! Run away, run awayyyy!"

Well, apparently the noisy robots didn't speak Zoid. Note for future reference, resume cooling sequence.

* * *

"Your move, kid."

"My name is Jamie." The "kid" in question studied the chess board in front of him, finally deciding to move his rook over. He tended to be a more cautious player, defending as best he could and then waiting for his opponent to get bored or frustrated. This technique worked very well with Bit (the only person Jamie had ever seen fall for the old four-move-checkmate trick five times), but Mach seemed to have a very similar strategy, which was making for a long game indeed. Of course, since he wouldn't be going out in today's battle and neither would Shineryuu (her paperwork was _still_ somehow held up) and Mach, it didn't really matter.

Reaching out with one armored paw, the organoid turned long blue claws and picked up his queen with a delicate grasp for something so pointy. He moved it a single square. "Check."

Jamie countered with a knight.

"Man, you guys are weird. How can you sit for three hours doing that?" It was Bit, who looked as if he had crawled out a window and run around outside while being chased by a Gun Sniper until climbing back in a different window. Which he had.

"Don't you have a battle to be going to?" Mach sent his queen into retreat, plotting a different avenue of attack.

"Yeah, I just came to get some food when you-know-who isn't guarding the fridge." Bit walked over to the aforementioned appliance, which still sported a scorched coffeemaker-shaped mark on its front. Of course, he wasn't paying attention to such things. He was more concerned about being ambushed and then chased out to the hangar and then chased by a Gun Sniper and—oooh, bagels!

"I suppose we'd better go with them...just in case." Jamie carefully picked up the chessboard and followed Bit to the Hover Cargo, trying his best not to let any of the pieces slip. There went a pawn. Oh, dear. "Bit, could you please wait up?"

"Don't worry, I've memorized the board layout already. And I promise not to cheat."

"Show-off."

* * *

The Liger Zero wasn't wearing a CAS this time. Nay, it was going to stay in its nice pretty white armor. Besides, the Panzer was no good against speedy things, the Schneider not very good for things with guns, and the Jäger was still smashed up. Bit wondered why the Doc hadn't fixed it yet. Usually he was so quick to repair the Liger's pretty shiny armors. Oh, well, maybe he was working on some new project. Leaning back in his seat, Bit watched as Harry's Whale King landed, and the König Wolf fairly pranced out followed by two Command Wolves.

Not just any Command Wolves, mind you. These were gold and silver. Chrome gold and silver, at that. They sparkled. They glittered. They flashed in the afternoon sun like a pair of...shiny Command Wolves. It was really one of those things one had to see for one's self, rather than read about with a bunch of fancy words relating to being shiny. These Wolves weren't just shiny—they ate, slept, and breathed SHINY. Of course, Zoids don't eat, sleep, or breathe, but you get the picture.

"What the heck is he _thinking?_ Those Command Wolves are practically walking targets," Ballad said, the hint of a laugh in his voice.

"What do you expect? It's Harry, remember? He doesn't think!" Rinon leaned forward in her seat, a mad grin crossing her face. "And I'll be getting another chance to blow him up! AH HA HA!"

"I still don't get why we hate him now."

"We just DO, Bit! Besides, he's annoying, and stupid, and he wears a funny coat, and..."

Rinon continued to rant on as the judge set up the battle, Bit rolling his eyes and instead focusing on this new Zoid. The König Wolf...the king of wolf Zoids, Harry had called it. Regardless of name, it was pretty impressive: at least as big as the Liger Zero, and sporting a pair of large booster-cannons on its back. This wouldn't be like the time he fought Harry's Dark Horn, Bit knew. This Wolf looked like it was a creature of speed and agility, the same as his Liger. Of course, if he was going to get a chance to fight it, he'd have to watch out for Rinon—

"Ready, FIGHT!"

As Bit had predicted, the König Wolf was immediately under fire...and easily evading most of it with the aid of its boosters. Hopping from side to side, it flipped down the scope on its neck, covering its face. Why would it be doing that?, Bit wondered. Everyone was in plain view, and it's not like they were allowed to shoot for the cockpit...which was probably beneficial to Harry's health.

"Heh, you're not the only one with fancy attack names now. GO! Super-Ultra-Shiny Buster Strike Flaaare!" Both Command Wolves trotted to the König's side, and fired...not their guns, but their smoke dischargers. Except there wasn't any smoke, just what looked like—

"GAH! BLINDING!" Bit covered his eyes too late as the flares exploded, light reflecting off the shiny wolves in a psychedelic, eye-searing manner. Everything was gold and silver chrome and light and he couldn't SEE.

"Waugh!" Something tearing, and then a crash...sounded like the Gun Sniper.

"YOU BIT OFF ITS LEG! Stupid Wolf! Stupid Harry! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!"

Definitely the Gun Sniper, and it was probably going to fire, blind or not. Bit flattened the Liger to the ground, as sure enough, another barrage of missiles went flying every-which-way...including towards the Shadow Fox, which was currently trying to evade an enemy it could see, but its pilot couldn't.

The Command Wolf jumped away as the Fox used its smoke dischargers in an attempt to level the playing field, leaving the Fox to get hit by missiles its pilot now _really_ couldn't see. "This just isn't our week," Ballad said, trying to pick up something on sensors as his vision slowly returned and the smoke cleared. Where were the Command Wolves? And for that matter, where was Harry?

The Fox's radar beeped, and it turned around in time to have a Command Wolf slam into its back, smashing it onto its belly and taking out the gatling gun.

"So much for walking targets. ACK!" The landscape flooded with light again, confusing Ballad long enough for the Wolf to blast the Fox in the back, taking its combat systems off-line.

"Okay, that's it. We now don't like WOLVES either." Ballad sat back and waited for the battle to end, muttering darkly and wishing he could remember where he'd put that pair of sunglasses he'd bought a while back. Or had he loaned them to Naomi? He couldn't remember. The Fox muttered to itself too, although it sounded more like a giant electric can opener in doing so.

* * *

"Strike...Laser...CLAW!"

"Electric Fang!"

_KA-ZOW!_ The König Wolf had grabbed the Liger's front paw in its teeth, and the two attacks crackled and blazed around each other, electricity and laser, as the Wolf tried to force the Liger's leg back and the Liger tried to knock the wolf down.

Bit leaned on the controls as if he were the one trying to push the Wolf over. "Come on, come on." And then his eyes caught a flashing red light on the display, and Liger _rrrf_ed in warning. _No, not those systems again!_ Bit cursed the earlier battle with Shineryuu that had probably left the Liger's leg still a bit vulnerable. Oh, if only the electric fangs would give out first...

They didn't.

"Uwaaaa!" The Liger's right leg rocked with the force of a few small explosions, and the Wolf jumped free, Harry firing the cannons at the Liger's shoulders and jumping away even as Bit brought the Liger to its feet. It was limping, and the Wolf wasn't. Bit grit his teeth, and then yelped and covered his eyes as one of the Command Wolves, wherever it was, used its flare attack again. Argh, just as his vision had been clearing. Now he could only see spots, spots, the König Wolf lunging for the Liger—woah! The Liger ducked in time, rolling to the side that wasn't injured and firing at the retreating wolf, who jetted to the side with its boosters.

"Looks like for once I have the advantage, eh?"

"Heh...for now, you do, anyway. Come on, Liger!" Roaring, the feline Zoid again returned to its feet, charging Strike Laser Claw...on its _hind_ legs this time. "Yaaah!" The Liger leapt for the Wolf, who boostered away, again out of his reach. Not giving up (when had he ever?), Bit waited for the Wolf to try for another bite—which it did—aiming for the Liger's right shoulder, of course. Hoping the Liger would hold together, Bit took the hit rather than dodging, using the momentum to roll the Liger onto its back. Kicking out viciously with its hind legs, the Liger smacked its claws into the Wolf's hindquarters, sending it twisting back through the air at an unnatural angle.

"Crud!" Releasing the Wolf's hold, Harry jerked it to the side and out of the Liger's reach. Both Zoids lay on the ground for a few seconds before getting up, the Liger favoring its right front leg and the Wolf staggering on damaged hindlegs.

"Ah, a bit more even now, you think?" Bit was still squinting, but it didn't take sharp vision to spot damage like that.

"Argh!" Not bothering to respond, Harry fired at the Liger again and ran as best the Wolf was able. Why hadn't he kept his distance in the first place? Stop running, fire, run, repeat.

The Liger Zero rocked as another blast hit home, Bit not able to dodge properly or catch up with the König Wolf, which danced annoyingly just out of his reach. The stupid thing kept using its boosters when he got close, compensating for its damaged legs. "Heh...don't suppose you could carry the Panzer armor right now, Liger?

No..._Bit, next time he fires, we should charge him. Even if we get hit..._

"Got it."

_Any second now...incoming!_ WHAM! Staggering yet keeping its feet, the Liger Zero ran towards the Wolf, taking five more shots before it got close enough that Harry realized he'd made a mistake...again. The Wolf sprung away, too slow this time, and the Liger Zero pounced. It wasn't a very impressive pounce—more of a flop, really—but it did the trick, slamming into the Wolf's already damaged hindquarters, one set of the Liger's claws taking off a discharger and the other stopping just short of the booster-cannons.

Had he not been wearing a safety harness that made such things rather difficult, if not impossible, Harry would have been bashing his head against the Wolf's console right now. Stupid, stupid, STUPID. Sure, the Wolf hadn't frozen yet, it was too stubborn for that, but it was only a matter of time before the Liger Zero got up and finished him off. It wasn't like he could _go_ anywhere.

And then he remembered something. Something rather important.

"These things can _turn!"_

Booster-cannons swiveled around, and Bit found himself wishing that the Liger Zero's neck was somewhere other than it was now.

"Take THIS!"

A single shot rang out, and the unthinkable happened.

Its neck smoking and crackling, the Liger Zero stood for a brief second, and then collapsed in a heap—combat system freeze.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then:

"AH HA HA! I won, I actually WON for once!"

Bit merely stared at the Liger Zero's screen, taking its annoyed growl as a sign that his friend was otherwise okay. He blinked, and then shrugged. "Eh he he...guess you did."

"What? You're not going to...whine or something?"

"No, this was fun! And I should've seen that coming!"

Harry's left eye had started twitching. "You mean you're—"

But before he could finish, he was interrupted by an all-too-familiar voice.

"You haven't won just yet, pal."

"Whaaa? Hey, you were down!"

"Ah, but not frozen. All I had to do was borrow Mach, and bam!" Rinon grinned, her Gun Sniper (which was glowing a rather nice shade of blue, rather like the sky on a clear day...but that's not important right now) taking aim.

"Hey! Judge! Can she do that?"

The judge paused, waiting for a signal back from the database concerning obscure rules. "Sorry, no rules exist concerning your query, therefore none exist prohibiting it."

"But...it's an organoid! If even half of the stories about those things are true, you might as well let them send in another Zoid!"

"Sorry, no rules exis—"

"ARGH!"

"Bye now."

The König Wolf may have been stubborn, but as damaged as it was, it was doomed. A fantastic barrage of fire pelted the thing until something exploded, and it plopped forward, all systems frozen. Were it living, its eyes doubtless would have turned into swirly things, or perhaps Xes. It certainly was not pining for the fjords or any other similar overused expression. Nay, this König Wolf was down for the count.

Harry climbed out of the cockpit, ignoring the judge blasting off after having declared Team Blitz the winner. It didn't matter. His König Wolf was decidedly crisped...and he'd lost. Again. At least this time he'd managed to take Bit down with him. Yeah. Some comfort that was.

Scanning the horizon for Benjamin and Sebastian's Command Wolves, he didn't have far to look...there they lay, in still-smoking piles of shiny scrap metal. Joy. Sitting down on the Wolf's head and leaning against an ear, Harry waited for a Gustav or something to come and drag it back to the Whale King. Oh, look, one of the Command Wolves was on fire.

* * *

It was rather boring being a sleeper Zoid, the Guysack decided for the fifteen-thousandth-and-twenty-first time. Especially one such as itself. You didn't have much in the way of memory banks. That led to all sorts of annoying things, like forgetting what you were—

_Database error. Please re-start._

It was rather boring being a sleeper Zoid indeed. The Guysack sighed—if it was possible for a Zoid to sigh. It was always losing its train of thought that way.

Could it be? A signal?

The little scorpion Zoid poked its head out of the ground, followed by the rest of its body, and launched itself at the rapidly-approaching unidentified blip with a hiss. All it had time to register was a blur of lavender and being swatted aside, and it was back on the ground.

Well, that was different. Of course, if there was no way it could continue pursuit, that meant it was...free? No, better report the incident, even with how little data it had. Scuttling off, the Guysack headed back to civilization. Several weeks later, it would end up scaring a bunch of patrons at a fast-food restaurant that just happened to be built exactly where an old Republic base had been, until someone had the presence of mind to pretend to be a Republican general and convince it that the chain's goofy mascot Death Saurer was not a threat and did not need to be chopped in half.

* * *

"Vega, I told you this wasn't a good place to test the Fury. It's full of random things like that sleeper Zoid, and—look out!"

The Fury calmly swerved around the remains of a Shield Liger and Saber Tiger, both long-dead, followed by those of several Command Wolves and a Molga or two. Vega lounged impossibly on its head, not only managing to stay on, but not have the wind knocked out of him at speeds that would make most Lightning Saix pilots nervous. All that happened to him was his hair fluttering in what seemed like a strong breeze. Whether this was the Fury's doing, or some stylistic device to make him look cool was unsure...but hey, even if it wasn't the latter, it had that effect.

Crossing his arms behind his head, he watched as the Zoid deployed a buster claw with little pause and sliced through a burnt-out Gojulas that was in its path. Then he remembered that this was probably some historical...battlefield...thing. "Oops. I'll have to go back later and stick it together, or something."

"Vega!"

"Man, Fury, you got me in trouble."

The sleek dinosaur shrugged what little shoulders it had and put on speed, skimming around blasted pieces of who-knows-what-Zoids like a skier would around poles.

"Well, it's nice to be able to fly again, eh?" Vega leaned back on the Fury's head, ignoring Sarah yelling about the Gojulas for now. It was far too nice a day to worry about that.

* * *

_"If he reads me one more draft of that poem, I swear."_

_"At least you aren't painted pink."_

_"Would you stop bringing that up?"_ The Wolf glared at the Leoblaze that was pestering it. It seemed annoyingness was rampant around here. At least its pilot was annoying only half of that time and showed signs of actually having a brain when he wasn't. This cat...thing...that his sister had bought was just plain an airhead.

_"Anyway, I thought I'd make up a poem too! Do you want to hear it?"_ The Leoblaze sat down, the gatling gun on its back clattering as it shifted into an impossible position on the floor to avoid stabbing its tail blade through the ledge it was perched on. Without waiting for an answer, it continued. _"There once was a Molga from New Helic City/That was painted blue, so very pretty..."_

Okay, that was it. If someone needed to talk to it later, tough beans. The Wolf sent its systems into a full shutdown, diverting all power to self-healing...especially its legs. The last thing it heard was something about the Molga meeting a dancing Pteras named Ferdinand.

* * *

"Man, Liger...this time I'm gonna double-check to make sure that those systems in your leg are working right."

Bit was currently polishing the last few scorch marks out of the sleek off-white armor, which the Liger happened to not be wearing at the moment, as he had taken it off to fix it up. The Jäger, still broken—still!—was next on his list. Refusing to stay naked for that long, the Liger had insisted on donning the Schneider for the time being. While the Schneider was elegant and very pointy and deadly, it also made for a few awkward moments, like when the Liger had run to the hangar door to greet someone and nearly skewered them. And to make matters worse, the doughnuts it had sensed (the Liger was trained in the art of such things) had been not for its pilot, but a gift for that noisy Gun Sniper one, who had apparently locked the main door. The Liger had apologized and offered to carry the doughnuts (and attached note, doubtless containing a love letter or the like) to the Gun Sniper to be passed on to its pilot, but it hadn't gone over well.

"Hey, hand me that, will you?" Bit gestured vaguely towards the group of tools in a pile near the Liger, the feline Zoid somehow understanding which one he meant. With a careful grace it flipped the top blade on its head down, caught...er, whatever the thing Bit wanted was, it wasn't sure...with the tip, and flicked it neatly though the air to him.

_BONK!_

"Owwww, Liger, you missed!"

So maybe it needed to work on its aim. It was close enough, right? Moving the blade back into its usual place, the Liger Zero suddenly stiffened with alarm. Something was wrong. Very wrong. What that something was, it wasn't sure, but it had this nagging feeling at the edge of its senses that insisted not all was right with the universe. The Liger growled, even as Bit caught the tail end of his partner's worrying and stood up.

"What is it, buddy?"

_"Not sure. And incoming transmission...on my systems?"_

Bending its head down and opening its cockpit, the Liger Zero waited for Bit to get in before switching the communication systems on. Vega, of all people, appeared on the monitor...upside-down. "Hey, Bit!"

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong?" Vega said, blinking. "Nothing's wrong."

"Oh...but Liger was sensing something ominous."

_Correction, Bit. I was picking up the error in that signal's transmission, nothing more._ The Liger 'sounded' embarrassed, and continued sheepishly. _Sorry about that._

"Argh, is this thing wonky again? I thought they fixed everything, but the comm's been acting up. Am I showing up in neon orange?"

"No, you're upside-down."

"Well, that's a new one." Vega muttered, jabbing the controls with a finger. The transmission flipped over, but was now the neon orange color Vega had described. "Anyway, want to have a rematch?" In the background of the transmission, Bit could hear an interested rumble from the Fury, and then one from his Liger in return.

"Cool, sure! And yeah, now you're all orange-y."

"Greh. Stupid thing! Well, not now, I hafta test this thing a little more, according to Sarah." Vega stuck his tongue out at the screen, a reminder that while he might pilot a Zoid like a skilled veteran, at heart he was actually a little kid—a genius, yes, but a kid. "And besides, don't you want to wait until Liger's at its best too? I heard it got all smashed up...by Harry."

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in, why don't you. Thpthhhh." Bit mimicked Vega's earlier gesture. After all, he acted more like a little kid at heart, too. "How's the end of this week?"

"Fine. See you there. And I'll be bringing a little surprise with me as well. Ah ha ha!" Vega chuckled, and then switched off the comm before Bit had a chance to ask about it.

"Awwww, man! He did that on purpose! Now I'll have to wait forever to find out what it is when we fight him."

_"Grrrroar."_

"Oh, yeah. We...I should probably tell the others about this too, huh?"

* * *

"What do you mean, we're fighting Vega again?"

"Vega? Isn't he the one with the other Ultimate X? I can't remember its name. Something with umlauts."

"I like umlauts."

Well, it seemed that the rest of the team already knew.

"Hey, Bit, you'll never guess who just cal—"

"I know!" Bit said, interrupting Jamie. "Vega! All right, another chance to fight him! And oh, hi, Rinon, I havetogogetLigerreadynow..."

"Biiiit! It's not until next week! Get back here!"

"Nooooo!"

"...well, anyway. We were discussing the issue of me getting half of Bit's share of the prize money, yes? After all, the last time I faced our friend and his oh-so-cuddly lavender dino, the Shadow Fox kind of...you know...got a wee bit damaged?" Ballad was sitting at the table with a coffee mug in one hand and a forgotten pen in the other. The crossword puzzle he'd been doing had been commandeered by Mach when Vega had called, and the organoid was nearly finished with it by now.

"No, we were talking about umlauts. Do you know a five-character word that goes with 21 down?"

* * *

Time passed. To say that it passed uneventfully would be a lie indeed, but to also detail everything that happened would be really, really boring. Who wants to hear about how Team Lightning and some guy in a Godos singlehandedly stopped the return of the Neo Backdraft before it even began? Especially since that didn't happen. Team Lightning was actually on vacation, and they'd decided to—oh, wait. This is about Team Blitz. Okay. Back to the base, for the umpteenth time.

* * *

The corridors and hallways of the base lay curiously empty—even the hangar was empty. The Command Wolf of DOOM! no longer lay sprawled out in a heap on the floor, waiting for mysterious weapons systems to be fixed. The Liger Zero wasn't scaring any more delivery boys, the Gun Sniper...okay, okay, so the base was empty. The reason for this was simple.

Today was the day.

Rematch and all that exciting stuff.

And while the narrator had been babbling, Team Blitz had already left in the Hover Cargo at top speed, heading for an area with similar terrain to where the Liger and the Fury first fought, sans smashed-up Ultrasaurus and the like. Oops.

"Arewethereyet?"

"No. Bit, stop bouncing the Liger on the launch ramp. You're going to break something...or get a blade stuck in the systems."

The Liger Zero still wore the Schneider armor, even though the base armor was now usable. Bit figured that if the Fury had a surprise in store, an e-shield might come in handy. Plus, the Liger had said that the blades suited such a situation. Whatever that meant. Man, this was boring.

"Okay, now we're there. Bit? BIT?"

The Liger Zero had decided to leave already, the Hover Cargo's door thankfully opening automatically. Not even waiting for the launch ramp, it had bounded over the Hover Cargo's head and out onto the field.

"He'd better not have scratched anything." Standing only to walk over to another chair, Doc watched as the Liger was joined by the Gun Sniper and the Shadow Fox. Jamie would join them later if he was needed. As would Shineryuu...if she got her Wolf fixed in time.

"Mach, give me a hand, will you? Put down that book of crossword puzzles, you can do them later."

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

* * *

"And so it begins, eh?" Bit waited for the judge to arrive, impatient as ever. He stared at the Fury, whose ruby-red eyes blazed with a similarly eager light. It seemed to stare back. He wondered if it could sense that he was staring at it, and then decided that Liger was probably staring too, which made more sense.

"BIT! INCOMING!"

The judge capsule crashed down dangerously close to the Fury and the Schneider, which both had intelligence enough to bound out of the way. "Hey, watch it, mister judge-man!"

"My apologies. The guidance systems have been acting up on these things, I'm really not sure why. Well, at least I got here, unlike last time. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to be expecting to set up a battle and then find that there's no one there and THEN find that it's because you're LOST? And—"

"GET ON WITH IT!"

"No need to be so impatient. Pilots these days are so impatient. You want a battle? Fine? Ready, fight. Happy?"

"...well, that was different." Ballad said, the Fox yipping in confusion.

"Yes, yes, it was. So is this thing like...started now?"

"Yes, oh impatient kid with eggbeater-wearing dino. It is." The judge, still sulking, crossed its arms and turned its back on them. "I said ready, fight, what more do you want?"

"Okayyyy."

"Well, then...WHEEE!" Rinon's Gun Sniper ran forward before either of the two rivals could react, and fired everything it had at a surprised Fury, which dodged by flinging itself to one side, boosters on full.

"Not so fast!" She fired again, but this time, the Fury lifted one set of claws, whipping them apart and raising an e-shield, which easily absorbed the barrage of missiles and whatnot...although a few wayward projectiles grazed its armor, causing minor damage that at best probably only amounted to scorched paint. Raising its other buster claw and almost casually charging it, the Berserk Fury aimed it at the Gun Sniper and fired...only to have the beam glance off the Schneider's e-shield as it leapt in front of the Sniper.

"Don't think me saving you means I'm in love with you, or something."

"Yes it does! See, I knew you cared!"

The Schneider growled as the Fury fired for the Fox, and the feline Zoid blocked the beam once more. It didn't like people chasing its pilot.

"Doesn't!" Abandoning its first strategy for now, the Fury jetted forward, trying to ram the Schneider, which bounded out of the way. The tyran Zoid stabbed for it with a buster claw, missing by a few feet.

"Does toooo, sweetie!"

"Would you STOP that?" The Fury stabbed for the Liger again, whacking into its shield. "You're gonna make me nauseous, or something." The Liger countered another claw-stab with its face blades, scoring a lucky hit and throwing the Fury off-balance. "ARGH!"

"Hey, Rinon, keep it up! Mushy stuff distracts him!"

"Shut up, mister heart-eyes."

The Schneider snapped for the blades before Vega could recover, catching them in its mouth. "This thing has laser FANGS too!"

Vega charged the blades, but not in time, as the Liger sliced into them with its own charged teeth, ripping off their tips and tilting the claw-arm at an awkward angle.

"Grrr..." The Fury turned its head as the Liger rolled away, and bit off the rest of its left buster claw. A half-functional one would only slow him down, Vega surmised...and he could always do this.

"Yaah!" Whipping around, the Fury spat out the still-sparking claw at the Shadow Fox, which had been trying for a sneak attack. It hit the Fox square in the chest, and it flopped to the ground with a squeak, its jump cut short. "Nice try."

The Schneider tried for a Buster Slash seconds later, and met shield...at least until it collapsed, Vega jumping back in time and the Schneider ending up hitting the ground nose-first. Rolling out of the way of an attempt to stomp on its neck, the cat Zoid got back on its feet and swiped at the Fury with its claws, driving it back. Hissing, the Fury jetted to one side, turning the motion into a spin and whacking the Schneider across its left flank with its tail.

"Ooof!" The Liger rocked with the impact, being thrown onto its belly. Something had gone snap. Bit looked at the console. Great, he was now short a face blade and one of the side ones. And that face blade tearing off probably had hurt the shield...yep, there it was, blinking at him in annoying red letters that the shield strength would be compromised, and that the solitaire game would no longer function.

"Bit! Get back here! You need to change armor!"

"Doc, I don't think I'd do any better in the regular armor or the Panzer than I am now."

"No, this is a new armor! I was going to tell you about it so you could test it and stuff, but you kept disappearing."

"Well, that's not exactly MY fault...but okay, Doc, I'm heading back now. Guys, cover for me!" And with that, the Schneider ran like mad for the Hover Cargo, leaving the rest of the team staring down the Berserk Fury.

"Not again..." Ballad mumbled, and the Fox growled. "Shineryuu, will you get that Wolf out here!?"

"I'm working on it! No, Mach, I need _that_ rock. Anyway, you guys hold on!"

"Easy for her to say, she hasn't had her Zoid's leg chopped off what...four times now?"

"Could we get back to the fight now?" The Fury, equally impatient, was tapping one hindclaw in the dust. It would much rather be fighting the Liger again, but these Zoids would have to do for now.

* * *

Bit stared at the new armor as the Hover Cargo's systems started to place it on the Liger. And stared...and...

"Er. Doc? Do I have to use this? It's...uh."

"Never mind that, it's nice and powerful. And what do you mean, it's 'uh'? It's shinyyy."

Bit shrugged and decided he could live with it. The Flauschig, as it was apparently called, did look strong, and that was what mattered, not that it was—woah, finishing. Time to focus on the battle again.

The Liger Zero, now sporting its new coat of armor, flew from the Hover Cargo in a flash of shinyness as Bit yelled:

"Go! FLAUSCHIG!"

* * *

_I say, what an exciting battle. Too bad I'm barely even IN IT. Come on, Liger, you can beat him! Hurry up, Wolf. And the Fury's got a new set of armor too? Eh, that doesn't sound too good...hang on, guys! Next Zoids New Century Slash Zero...A Parting of Ways! The Wind, the Clouds, and a Disgruntled Shadow Fox! Ready, FIGHT!_


	5. A Parting of Ways!

And so the end begins. This thing's been a lot of fun to write, I hope it was at least some fun to read. A huge amount of thanks goes to everyone who's helped me somehow, be it as minor as commenting (feedback gooood) or as major as inspiring a plot thread. I couldn't possibly name everybody...I know I'd forget someone, and that'd be no good. So thanks to everyone. Yay.

* * *

_(pointless recap of previous episode)_

The Liger Zero, now sporting its new coat of armor, flew from the Hover Cargo in a flash of shinyness as Bit yelled...

"Go! FLAUSCHIG!"

_(end pointless recap of previous episode)_

* * *

"Well, at least my Gun Sniper didn't get its leg chopped off. Pity about the Fox, though. Bet it'll be a pain to fix."

"You know, I really HATE stalling for him." Ballad was still sitting in the Fox's cockpit, although said cockpit, and the head of which it was a part, were lying quite some distance from the rest of it. The Gun Sniper merely had a neat stab wound through one shoulder and a missing ear, and was sitting looking almost battle-ready, except for the slight list to one side that betrayed the system shutdown it was actually in.

The Fox's head would have keened a reply, but it realized the systems it needed for that were in the part of its neck that was currently sitting on that rock over there. How it was able to realize this when its core was 61.2 meters due south from its head, it wasn't sure. Probably some sort of emergency power link that was there in case of its head being severed. Doctor Leyon had been rather fond of bizarre systems like that. And to think people had mocked him for it! Well, the Fox was certainly grateful, although it couldn't exactly _say_ so.

No one listened to it these days anyway. Ballad sometimes had, but now he mostly paid attention to that girl. It must be her shiny hair, the Fox decided. It was even shinier than its gold trim, and shinyness seemed to be so important to that Doc fellow that it must be important to other humans too.

Deciding that long rambling trains of thought wouldn't help it get reattached, the Fox's head shut down, not caring it left its pilot in the dark. It was sick of people for the time being.

* * *

And then there it was, over the horizon, glistening in the evening sun and roaring as it bounded towards them, towards Vega and the Fury.

If you had to compare it to the earlier armors, it probably looked the most like the Schneider in that it wore blades. But these were thicker, deadlier, the side ones more like a Blade Liger's, and a shorter one on each ankle pointing outwards and up, vaguely like the Schneider's fins. It was sleek like the Jäger, too, every line of it seeming to perfectly walk the boundary between aerodynamic and a high ability to Blow Stuff Up. The ion boosters hadn't been forgotten, although they weren't to so large of a scale. You had to leave room for the rather ominous-looking cannon on its back, after all, as well as a decent amount of Panzerlike missiles, all neatly arranged as to not leave it as heavy or bulky.

It was also two rather bright shades of pink and purple. Shiny pink and purple...and sparkley, at that.

"I didn't want to have to use this."

"I can see why." Vega was trying rather hard not to laugh. This was supposed to be a serious battle, after all, a chance to beat his rival and Fury his. But he couldn't help it. Especially not with how it was even _glittery._

"...I meant I haven't had the chance to test it."

Vega could only manage a squeak that sounded rather like 'pink' before he collapsed into a rather un-Vega-like fit of giggling and the comm link shut off.

* * *

"Doc, I told you we should've just left it plain for now." Jamie sighed. "Poor Bit."

"Nooo! I couldn't leave it plain! So what if I was out of normal colors of paint? I like those, they're shinyyyyy."

* * *

A few moments passed before Vega collected himself enough to attack the pink-and-purple-clad Flauschig—not much time, but it was enough time for Bit to mount an attack of his own, the Liger leaping for the Fury, Strike Laser Claw hitting Buster and deflecting both to the side. The Liger jumped back only enough to land on its hind legs, swatting for the buster claw again and hitting e-shield as Vega's lightning reflexes brought it online just in time.

Silver blades swung around in pink sockets, and the Flauschig's paws drove into the e-shield, sending it flickering.

"Twin-Blade Shield Buster!"

The shield fell, and Vega found himself having to jet to the side as the Flauschig came closer than he liked to slicing through Fury's shoulder as well. The buster claw folded up from its shield position awkwardly, too slow, blast it, and missile fire grazed the lavender Zoid's side before Vega settled for jetting clean up into the air, the boosters being pushed to their limits. For a brief moment, the Fury managed hovering flight akin to a Geno Breaker's, until it came crashing down where the Flauschig had been seconds earlier, swinging its tail and grazing the hindquarters of the fleeing Liger with a SMACK! and sending it loping in a rather undignified manner out of close range.

* * *

A resounding howl filled the Hover Cargo as the Command Wolf of DOOM! announced its return to the land of the living. Mach had simply fused with it to complete the more minor of the needed repairs, and its orange cockpit shimmered blue for a few seconds before it jumped onto the launch ramp.

"Let's go, Mach."

* * *

Vega grit his teeth from the shock as lavender armor slammed into white, the Flauschig's head snapping back. Fury had literally headbutted it, using its weight and size to its advantage. The shiny-clad Liger staggered back to its feet, Bit urging it forward, screaming a battle cry and apparently unrattled from having been tossed around in the cockpit.

"Ghhh." Swinging the remaining set of blades forward, Vega parried a thrust from the Flauschig's front ankle blades. Dodge, stab, parry, slash, look out for the other foot, block...for a few insane seconds the two were evenly matched, sparks flying freely as Fury's blades charged and the Liger's did too.

And then, Bit's usual crazy luck came through again: he struck home, hitting between the base of where the two blades met, and the buster claw tore off.

Twisting away and leaving the Liger to deal with untangling itself, Vega jerked the controls to bring Fury into another Geno Breaker impression. The Fury complied, its roar echoing along with the boosters screaming in protest...and yet, they held it in the air, perhaps partially from the sheer force of Vega's will, or something equally mysterious and dramatic.

"Crud!" He may have rid the Fury of one of its main weapons, but he'd also left himself rather open to attack. Cursing his mistake, Bit swiped at the former buster claw with the Liger's free paw, trying to slice himself loose—ack, _toolate._

Gravity all too willing to reclaim its hold, the Fury half-flew-half-fell straight onto the Flauschig's back. The Liger snarled in protest, over a hundred tons of pointy angry lavender metal dinosaur keeping it from doing much else. Kicking and struggling awkwardly, it tried in vain to get up as Bit pounded at locked controls and muttered about how stupid he'd been.

Clack-WHUMPH!

Great, now he was footlocked to the ground, the Fury standing with one foot on the Liger and the other stuck in the ground...which would be rock, of course, and not something easy to break out from like sand. "Blast it! Come on, Liger, we can't lose just because he _stepped_ on us!"

WHAM!

"Okay, make that stepped and now is stomping on—gyaaaah!"

_Stomp...stomp...stomp..._ "Fnrg. All that pounding's making it hard to think." Bit shook his head. "Liger, you holding together?"

_I really don't like being stepped on any more than you like getting shaken around like that._

* * *

"Ack! No! HE'S SCRATCHING THE PAINT! Not my shiny paint!"

Figures, _that_ would get the Doc to show some interest in the battle. Other than talking about the pretty shiny armor, he'd been pretty much ignoring it. Sighing and deciding that there wasn't much point in him staying in the room, Jamie left to go sulk with his Raynos. The Doc didn't notice, of course he wouldn't. _No one ever pays any attention to me. Angst._

* * *

The Command Wolf of DOOM! arrived then, galloping on swift little blue paws. The Liger Zero was still being stomped on, and Shineryuu decided it would be best to do something about it. The Wolf produced a set of foot anchors from somewhere on its ankles, driving them into the hard ground with a series of sharp clacks.

"Hey, kid! Over here!"

Vega turned, leaving the Liger Zero still trapped. He saw only a Command Wolf, to his surprise...and then he watched as it unfolded sets of vents along its back and side and lowered its head in an all-too-familiar manner.

"A charged particle cannon? On a Command Wolf?" Deciding there was little time to dodge as he could already see the energy gathering around the thing's mouth, Vega settled for bracing the Fury, the sleek Zoid rumbling a slight concern for his safety before removing its foot from the Liger and turning to face the Wolf as it fired.

The world went white-hot, the Wolf a focus for a blazing line of energy that seemed to grow wider than it was. Somehow, it managed to not hit the Liger Zero for the most part, and the Fury bore the brunt of the impact. Much of its front armor fairly disintegrated, breaking away as it absorbed the CPC's power. The intakes for the boosters switched on, taking in some of the charged particles as best as they could to siphon them away. They whined in protest, managing to stay on as the Wolf's beam dissipated.

The Fury stood, unharmed...other than the lack of armor on it, anyway. It growled angrily as the Wolf raised its footlocks and the Liger staggered to its feet, knowing it was in rather desperate need of some good ranged weapons about now.

"Time for my surprise. Sarah!" The Fury jogged off, heading for the transport from which it had come. The Wolf and the Liger gave chase...at least until a quick spatter of fire forced them both to stop.

"Rev Raptors?"

"He's using them to stall. I bet he's up to something!"

_"Well, duh."_

"Quiet, Mach."

Bit swung the Flauschig's side blades down and charged them, heading for one of the Raptors, which skittered out of the way only to bounce back in front of him.

"Argh! Go away! Burning Mane!" The Flauschig merely launched a couple missiles from near its neck at the thing, which both missed. "Aw, man, what kind of stupid attack name is that? Let's just do this. Strike Laser Claw!"

The Raptor went down at about the same time as Shineryuu's did, although the one she'd been after was now short a tail as opposed to two of it legs. "I think we're too late."

The transport—whatever strange kind it was—was reopening, and something was launching.

That something was the Fury, but not half-naked anymore. Nay, it sported a shiny new set of armor too. "Berserk Fury Sturm, CAS completed!"

The Zoid in question was still more similar to the original than any of the Liger armors, although it now was more pointy-sleek, designed for cutting through the air. The large boosters that had replaced the buster claws made it clear how it would be doing said cutting, and it still had claws. Someone from a long-forgotten era would have probably said they looked like a Geno Breaker's, and they did bear some resemblance in that they were a pair of pincers with shields. But these were smaller, mounted on the Fury's shoulders, and looked as if they were still more suited for stabbing than any actual crushing of things.

"Well, what do you think? You're not the only one with a new armor."

"I think the red on the shields clashes," Shineryuu said, in a tone similar to the acidic one that her organoid was so fond of.

"Oh, and pink and purple is so much better?"

"Hey, I didn't paint it!" With that, Bit and the Flauschig charged, the blades again whipping out to the Liger's sides. The Command Wolf of DOOM! followed suit with its Mach-energy-blades, howling a challenge as it accelerated.

"Sturm boosters...on!" The giant ion boosters on the Fury's back sprang to life, unfolding top and bottom in panels like the Jäger's. The foot boosters activated as well, and the dinosaur Zoid shot forward at speeds that would make the aforementioned Jäger look painfully slow. It unfolded the side claws, slicing at the two Zoids rushing it as it sped past them. Both the Wolf and the Liger hopped out of the way, turning around to see the Fury already disappearing into the distance.

"Well, this just got _really_ interesting."

"Come on, Liger, after him!" The Flauschig's own boosters were on before Bit finished the sentence, and the chase was on. The Command Wolf of DOOM! joined in, the blades dropping to be replaced by the booster-wings it had used before.

The three Zoids were all now moving at speeds that would rival even a few flying ones. While they weren't breaking any sound barriers, they were certainly breaking _speed records._ The cameras focused on the battle fought to keep up with them, the view finally shorting out on one channel's feed, much to the annoyance of many viewers, a good deal of whom were betting on the outcome. The station switched feeds, and the static was replaced with the Flauschig and the Command Wolf of DOOM! gaining ground on the Fury, although it was obvious the Flauschig was reaching the end of its limits and the Fury wasn't.

"Bit! Don't waste all that energy. Let me catch him, and when I get him slowed down a little..."

"I get to blast him."

_"That's the general idea, yes."_

"Gotcha." The Flauschig slowed somewhat (if dropping to 371.2 kph can be considered slowing), its boosters still on, but not at full. It settled into an even lope more suited to a wolf or hyena following behind faster prey, biding its time. It would have its rematch, once it didn't involve a boring chase across the desert.

* * *

The Wolf, meanwhile, continued to gradually gain on the Fury. Running in great leaping strides like a Saix and aided with the addition of the wings, it fairly flew, seeming to skim the ground. "Hey again, pointy dino."

The Fury snarled and added its regular boosters to the mix, screeching ahead at an even more painful pace. Vega was enjoying the whole thing, of course, clinging to the controls and half-laughing as his Zoid accelerated to four hundred and fifty kilometers and hour. The only ground Zoid to ever best that speed had been some fragile obscure one only found in museums nowadays, not at all like his Fury. It was freedom, this sort of thing. Nothing to worry about. Just a nice pleasant cruise through the desert while your opponents all wore themselves out.

"There's no way you'll catch me—the Sturm Fury is the fastest Zoid alive!"

"That may be true, but if it is, it's TIED for that record! MACH!" The Command Wolf of DOOM! howled, defying all sorts of laws about armor strength and energy output limits as the entire thing glowed blue, and it pulled up alongside an astonished Fury. The tyran Zoid growled, and probably would've tried to stab it with the right claw had Vega not stopped it.

"Hey, wait, you'll shear it off! See those rocks over there?" The Fury growled its acceptance of the plan, knowing what it was without need for explanation.

Veering to its left and heading for the cliff Vega had pointed out, the Fury dropped a little in speed in turning as the Wolf followed. Not able to turn all that quickly either, it was left running as close behind the other Zoid as it dared. Skimming alongside the cliff face and tearing off pieces simply from all the wind and energy whipping around it, the Fury increased its speed to full again, leaving the Wolf eating rock shards.

"Oh no you don't!" The Wolf couldn't raise its shield without losing ground, so it instead bounded up onto the side of the cliff face. Tilted at a crazy angle that by all means should've sent it falling, it tilted its wings to match and kept up its equally crazy pace. It claws jammed into the rock with every stride, leaving an odd trail of paw-shaped holes in its surface, and worsening the damage the Fury was doing to what _had_ been a pretty rock formation scant few minutes ago.

The Wolf fired the CP-04 cannons, Mach somehow absorbing the recoil. The Fury responded by raising the ion boosters a bit higher, causing it to skip against the ground, but sending the exhaust back into the Wolf's face.

"Yaaaah!" The Wolf put on one last maniac sprint, taking it further up the cliff face, directly above the Fury...and before the saurian Zoid could pull away, the Wolf was leaping for its back, and everything was chaos: the Fury trying frantically to stop and not hit the cliff and get the 71 tons of screeching angry biting fury that was the Command Wolf of DOOM! off its back, and the Wolf trying to hold on and not get blown back to where the boosters would crisp it and attack at the same time.

It was over in a split second to those watching, a barely visible flurry of motion in lavender and blue. Both Zoids were flung into the dirt, clouds of dust and shattered glass that had formed as the Fury's boosters grazed the ground flying every which way.

As it cleared, you could see the Command Wolf of DOOM! and the Sturm both standing, miraculously unharmed...other than the fact that one of the Fury's standard boosters was sparking, and the other was sitting in the Wolf's mouth. The blue Zoid spat it out, the metal sizzling and melting into the sand. Its claws were blunted and a few of its teeth were missing, but it had succeeded in what it had intended to do.

"Heh. Not the fastest Zoid any more, buddy."

"Fury! Check the booster integrity!" Vega winced as the graph came on screen. While the boosters were still attached and functional, they weren't going to be going as quickly as they had anytime soon. Curse that stupid Wolf! "Let's get her!"

_"Uh-oh."_

"What do you mean, uh-oh?"

_"I mean I think I—"_ With that, Mach's fused-with-Wolf voice cut out, and he was flung from its core in a sputter of blue light only to re-materialize on the ground. "Over-did it a bit. I think you might want to run until I can...re...fuse." The organoid fell over with a clank, his eyes losing their normal gold glow and fading to brown as Mach essentially...well, fainted.

"I think I'll second that uh-oh." Shineryuu said, as the Wolf staggered into an uneven run. Mach had been helping the thing more than she would have liked, and now she was paying for it. The core was strained, the legs were overheating and sparking in places, and the electromagnetic fang was down. "Where's that Liger when you need him?"

* * *

"There they are! And the Wolf looks a bit smashed up. Hurry, Liger!" The Flauschig went to top speed again, trying to reach the Wolf in time.

* * *

"You go stabby now!" Having caught up with the Wolf easily in its weakened state, Vega was now attempting to skewer it. The Wolf didn't _want_ to be skewered and was bouncing around like crazy in an attempt to avoid it, but that made it even more fun! Wolfy shish-kebabs, yes.

And then the Fury paused, growling at the horizon from whence they had come. "The Flauschig...well, we need to take care of her first," Vega said, noting that the controls became stiffer in his hands the second he said that. The Fury was getting impatient. While normally a perfectly nice, friendly sort of Zoid, it did have a rather nasty temper. "Just stab her, and we'll be done with it, buddy."

Growling about team battles not being its cup of tea when there were rivalries to settle, the saurian Zoid again hovered, this time with a bit less effort thanks to the Sturm boosters. The Command Wolf of DOOM! limped away, all too slow, and it soon found itself in much the same position as it had found the Liger Zero: being squished. Except this time, the Zoid doing the squishing wasn't going to wait for her to fall apart, no. It had blades, and it was angry.

Raising a claw and not taking any time for dramatic flair, the Fury unceremoniously charged it, turned it, and brought it down again, straight for the Wolf's neck—

"Noooo!" The Flauschig arrived too late, rocketing into view as the Fury stabbed, leaving the Command Wolf of DOOM! on the ground screeching, but unable to do much of anything. Now knowing how the Shadow Fox must have felt, the wolf Zoid diverted all remaining power into keeping the combat system online...even if it couldn't move, it didn't want to freeze just yet. It might be useful somehow, and it wanted to see what happened, darnit!

"Shineryuu! You okay?" Bit sounded hurried—he was. Snapping its teeth at a clawtip, the Liger Zero ducked and rolled like a cornered animal, trying to protect its fallen comrade and get the battle to move someplace else.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Watch it, you almost stepped on Mach."

"Sorry." Bit cut another clawstab short, the Flauschig's modified versions of the Schneider's bunny-ear-like shield generators flipping out to block the attack.

"Got you cornered now." Vega grinned as the Fury leaned forward, putting its full weight onto both claws. They were pointed right at the Liger: the second the shield cut out, the Liger would be a shish-kebab too—happy day! Of course, Bit had other plans.

"Liger, just what can that cannon of yours do? I mean...what's it fire? Beams? Missiles? Confetti?"

Not in the mood for a joke at the moment, the cat Zoid growled and brought the data file online.

"Oooh, variable weapons system. Look at all those different things! Hmmm...eenie meeny miney moe, catch a Liger by the toe..."

_Just PICK ONE!_

"Okay, okay. Here, this one! Laser vulcan system...on! Ready, Liger? NOW!"

The Flauschig dropped its shield and fired at the same time, sending the Fury dropping right into a hail of gatling fire. "Uwaaa!" Vega managed to bring the claws back up to shield the Fury's face, but this ruined his nice stabby plan. Hissing through his teeth, he threw the foot boosters on in reverse, hopping away from the Flauschig, which merely continued fire, the cannon on its back folding out and upwards for a better turning radius like the Fox.

"I don't like gatlings." Whirling the Sturm around, Vega turned the boosters on full, rocketing away and leaving the Flauschig to deal with the backwash of energy from the things.

"Well, if he wants a chase, then let's give it to him. Come on, Liger, let's see how we can keep up with him now! Booster...ON!" Roaring, the cat Zoid picked itself up from the ground and took off, clouds of dust swirling in its wake.

No one heard a tired yet familiar voice complaining that hey, someone stepped on my tail.

* * *

Jamie, meanwhile, was currently debating whether to even bother taking the Raynos out. At the speeds both Zoids were moving, the only chance he had at giving the Fury any trouble was skimming low to the ground far faster than he'd like—he remembered his battle with that Saber Tiger all too well—and if Lineback could take him out of the air, what good was he against Vega?

"None, that's what."

"Eh? Did you say something?" Doc had been staring at the screen since the Flauschig had re-appeared, utterly fascinated with his new creation and its shinyness.

"Nothing...never mind." Honestly, it seemed all he was good around here for was cooking and collecting angst that nobody noticed. And that couldn't be healthy.

* * *

Gold claws barely touching the earth as it boostered along, the Flauschig pursued its rival, gaining ground quickly. Seeing the time for running was over (and not really caring—it was getting boring), Vega waited until the Flauschig was nearly on top of them to make his move.

"Hyaaa!" The Fury came to almost a dead stop, instead shooting clear up into the air, letting the Flauschig fly past it before coming back down, claws at the ready. Bit's reflexes didn't fail him either, though, and the Liger whirled around, its own blades swinging partway forward to block an incoming stab.

"So, it's slicey time again?" The Flauschig fired a few missiles at the tyran Zoid, following on their heels with its claws blazing.

"Indeed." The Fury responded by using the claw-shields to swat first the missiles and then the Liger, the latter's claws leaving melted gouges in the armor.

The Fury jetted around with far more ease than you would expect from a creature of its size as the Liger continued its assault of claw-swats and blade-stabs. Each Zoid grew faster as its respective organoid system kicked into overdrive, leaving spectators watching an ever-accelerating swirl of slashing claw and stabbing blade and other such things associated with angry giant mecha animals. Neither seemed to have the upper hand, although it was pretty clear this was a fight out of almost any other pilots' leagues, even as Bit and Vega made it look so deceptively simple.

"Man, I lost them again." Rinon was trying to watch the battle on her Gun Sniper's screen to little success, as every time she tried to zoom in, the battle moved elsewhere. "Hang on, Bit-channnn..."

Ballad rolled his eyes at that. He'd moved to sit on the Gun Sniper's head after the Fox had shut down, since it was the only thing with sensors that worked, and he wanted to know what was going on. "I don't see them either." Peering through a pair of old binoculars (amazing what you could forget you'd left in glove compartments), he looked for any sign of the two Ultimate Xes.

"Aaaah! There!"

Putting down the binoculars, Ballad looked up to see both Zoids approaching at high speed, the Flauschig trying for a blade slash to the Fury's leg, as the other Zoid jetted to the side and they both got way too close.

"Aw, cra—"

A flash of blade and a whirl of wind and dust from all the boosters involved, and both Zoids were gone.

Rinon's Gun Sniper keened sadly, falling over with one leg sliced off.

"AAAIIGH! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU TOO, VEGA!"

There was a slight pause, after which she realized that Ballad was no longer sitting where he had been. "Um, you alive down there?"

"...oh, just spiffy. Other than the fact that I have a gatling gun crushing my foot, quite splendid, thank you!"

* * *

Harry was holding what looked to be something very much like his original letter, set on fire and then stomped on by a rather heavy Gun Sniper. "You sure that's a bad sort of response? Look, she included a drawing of me."

The König Wolf nodded and growled. It was lying down with its still-damaged legs splayed out in front and back of it much like those of a real canine when it was tired. It twitched one ear as the sensors shorted in and then out again—its pilot should be fixing that, not angsting.

"Okay, so it's me getting stepped on by her Gun Sniper, but it's still good."

_"Ruuuu."_

"I guess nobody appreciates good poetry any more."

Maybe someone would pay more attention to it if it bit one of those noisy robots in half, the Wolf pondered. Or it could try and get Harry's sister...what was her name, Mary? to fix it without her squealing over how pretty it was like when she'd first seen it.

"Aaaah! The battle's on, and I forgot!"

Well, there certainly wasn't any hope of getting his attention, then. The Wolf grumbled and shut down once more.

* * *

The Flauschig, meanwhile, was making full use of its shield. The Fury had taken their fight into a forest, which seemed harmless enough. Unfortunately, said forest was rather scraggly and dry, and both Zoids' boosters were running hot. It hadn't taken very long for it to catch on fire. It now was a mess of rolling flames and burning trees, and smoke billowed dark and thick as Bit and Vega both fought to keep track of their opponent.

"I can't see a thing past the shield," Bit lamented, only a measly blip on a screen telling him where the Fury was. "Oh, for a good 3-D radar system."

At that, the cockpit went dark, the lights dimming to near-imperceptible levels, as the entire top gave way to a wireframe display in shades of neon green. Had Bit not been trying to stay in the battle and _alive_, it would've been quite fascinating. There was the Fury, slicing through a falling tree and using the claw shields to keep it from getting burnt. Not that it cared much, but Vega did, and it was determined to do a better job of protecting its pilot this time.

"Man, why didn't you tell me you could do that before?"

Shrugging, the Liger murred a warning as the Fury caught wind of their sensor lock, using it to find them as easily as they had it.

"All right, let's get him!" Bounding over a falling tree, the Flauschig plowed through a wall of flames with its shield, bursting through it as the Fury brought its blades forward, leaving the two to clash again. The Fury won, hurling the smaller Zoid into a tree, which promptly fell on it. Only the shield saved it, nearly cracking already from the intense heat.

The Liger was relatively unscathed so far thanks to its shield, but the Fury's armor, while tempered to resist heat from some things, wasn't fairing well in the smoke, and was changing color. Of course, it was going from lavender to a nice shade of ashen grey, so it wasn't going to complain. Nay, this was fun! It enjoyed a good scrap, why couldn't anyone see that? Well, other than Vega, anyway. And as much as it hated that Liger...

Picking up a burning tree in its jaws, the Fury rumbled a challenge, swiping it at the Flauschig, which caught it fearlessly, its eyes blazing a brilliant orange to match the rising flames.

That Liger understood too.

Both Zoids snarled, each trying to push the other over. Fancier weapons forgotten for the moment, they focused only on the tree, like two giant dogs playing tug-of-war in reverse. Neither was going to let go.

Bit caught sight of something on the radar, something at the very edge of his vision—

"Liger! Vega! LOOK OUT!"

The two Zoids jumped clear just in time, a decidedly larger tree crashing down where both of their heads had been seconds before. Battle-lust slightly sobered by the prospect of being crushed, they stared at each other from either side of the treetrunk, flames licking at both of their feet.

"Ready to give up?" Bit quipped, running a hand through somehow still-pointy hair to try and get some of the sweat out of his eyes.

"Heh...not on your life." Vega stared back at him from the video link, which seemed so much brighter against the backdrop of black and green wireframe.

"You know, your hair kinda looks like a mop."

* * *

The members of Team Tigers _had_ been practicing their whole Zoid-acrobat thing, at least until the whole incident with two of the Tigers colliding. They had long tried to figure out why the Zoids had such a penchant for going down in dramatic explosions, but now was not the time for such things.

"Five bucks says they both go crispy."

"Have a heart, man. Besides, Bit's way too lucky to go crispy."

No, it was much more interesting to watch the ongoing battle on the portable TV one of them had dragged out. Even the Tigers themselves had curled up behind it, though one was missing a leg and another looked quite burnt. They, of course, favored the Flauschig, but kept quiet about it.

* * *

The Flauschig came flying out of the forest then, its weakening shield sparkling with both its own light and bits of burning tree as they swirled around it. It landed, the shield breaking, and roared, looking far more suited to the name "Helcat" than the original Zoid itself. Shaking embers off its back and mane, it turned to face its rival as it too came barreling out of the forest.

Looking even more like a demon than the Flauschig did, the Fury was now a rather charcoal shade, streaked with black and highlighted by a few still burning pieces of former foliage clinging to it. Echoing the Liger's roar, it rushed the cat Zoid, taking advantage of its lack of shield by again going for the skewer.

Calling up the cannon menu, Bit randomly punched a button, and the Fury found itself driven back by what was now a high-density beam gun rather than a gatling. Undaunted, it blocked with the claw shields and pressed forward, driving the Liger back.

Trying the blades again, the Flauschig went for the Sturm booster on the left, but soon regretted it, when the Fury took advantage of its improved foot boosters to literally backflip over it, smacking the Liger with its tail in the meantime. The feline Zoid turned around, a fraction too slow, and both Bit and the Liger screamed as one of the claws found its mark in the Liger's shoulder.

"Waaaak! Let go!" Kicking out with its non-skewered leg, the Liger left deep slashes in the Fury's leg armor before it was tossed away. Of course, that did him little good, Bit knew. The Flauschig could only use three of its legs, couldn't run, couldn't jump.

_Well, well...how about a Liger shish-kebab to go with my Command Wolf?_

_I still have a few tricks up my sleeves, you Geno Breaker wannabe._

_If it's Breaker you want, it's Breaker you'll get. Vega!_

"I don't think you shoulda said that, Liger."

Unfolding tail and neck armor, the Fury hovered backwards a bit and then up, charging a CPC. Sturm boosters readying to absorb a lot of the recoil, the Zoid did indeed resemble a Geno Breaker. Of course, Bit didn't know this, and if he had, he wouldn't had cared. All he could focus on was the fact that the Flauschig and he were going to be in a heck of a lot of trouble if they didn't get out of the way, and fast. Hobbling at far too slow a speed to be of use, the cat Zoid rumbled with concern.

* * *

"I don't see why it needs to watch too."

"It just does. Besides, are you going to tell a hundred-ton cat that it can't have the good TV?" Leon gestured towards the rebellious Zoid in question, which sat with the 'good' TV held neatly in its paws.

"Mmm, good point." Naomi squinted at the screen of an older model flat-screen that they'd kept in case the main one shorted out—NOT in case the Blade Liger commandeered it, blast it—wishing it were in color. "Uh-oh."

Nearby, a red Blade Liger sat with its nose inches from the screen, snarling angrily at the Zoid about to roast the Liger Zero. If it did, who was it supposed to party with then?

* * *

Energy danced around the Fury's snout, collecting in a ball of deadly soon-to-be-crispy-Liger-ness. Vega grinned as the Flauschig attempted to limp out of the way. No, there was no way it was going to stop him like last time. The Fury smiled as well, its silver teeth somehow taking on the appearance of one...of course, when using a CPC, no one can see you smirk. It really was a pity, the saurian Zoid thought. Oh, well.

_Time to die, Liger Zero._

Bit could only watch as the beam reached critical. The Flauschig's leg had given out completely, and it was left dragging it...deadweight. Literally, if what he'd seen that CPC do before was any indication. Didn't Vega realize that he could _kill_ someone with that thing?

Ah, but main characters can't die. No, someone would have to save the day, and someone did.

CRACK! The Fury rocked with the impact from heavy fire, its CPC losing most of its charge as what was left of it ended up shooting haphazardly into the sky. It and Vega whirled as one, the latter's face livid with rage. But who...?

Of course.

"Hey for a third time, buddy." Shineryuu's voice was hoarse, sounding rather tired. The Command Wolf of DOOM! stood some distance away, large portions of it held together by flickering blue energy. "This thing won't last much longer. Bit, catch!"

"Whu-huh?" A branch of energy split off from the Wolf, striking the Liger Zero before tapering out. The Flauschig stood once more on four legs, its brilliant armor reflecting both the burning forest and glowing Wolf in a way reminiscent of a disco ball. "All right!"

"Grah...Fury!" The saurian Zoid sprang into the air again, the matte shades of its burnt armor a dark shadow against the fire in the background.

"What do you say we fight fire with fire...one last try, old friend?" The Wolf didn't voice its agreement, but instead answered by clamping footlocks into the ground again after turning to face the Fury.

"There's no way you can take that. And then it'll be back to me and fluffy here." The larger Zoid's CPC charged again, glowing far brighter than the crippled Wolf's.

The Flauschig, however, did indeed have a few more tricks up its sleeve.

"Awesome, it's got a CPC too?" Bit read over the stats for the variable cannon again. Sure enough, he'd missed that part before because he was being lazy and only reading the stuff in kana. Charged Particle Cannon blinked at him in now red kanji, the Liger emphasizing it for his benefit. "Well, let's use it! Hurry!"

The Flauschig's ankle blades swung around to point downwards, and it slammed its paws into the ground as if they were pickaxes. Its frame stiffened—even the tail straightened, whipping around with a snap as the cannon moved into firing position. Already worn cooling systems readied to go into overdrive again.

screeeEEEEE_BOOM!_—the Wolf and the Fury fired simultaneously, the two beams meeting in mid-air and creating a horrible cacophony of sounds that rather resembled the dial-up modem from Hell.

"Hang on, Wolf, Mach! We can't let everyone down! It wouldn't be nice!" Shineryuu clung to the controls, shielding her eyes with one arm. The Wolf's cockpit glass was starting to crack.

_"Stupid thing, you'd better not explode with me fused with your core."_

"Shineryuu! Fire, Liger! FIRE!" The Flauschig's cannon glowed from within, outlining one of the only darker-colored areas on the Zoid a burning shade of hot pink...and then its own CPC beam joined the Wolf's, the two merging into a raging spiral that soon threatened the Fury.

"Ryaaaaah!" Digging in its claws, the Flauschig diverted everything it had to the cannon, ignoring the fact that it was melting it own systems. Too absorbed in the battle, Bit didn't even notice the cockpit growing hotter, much less all the warnings blinking on screen.

"No...I can't lose! I WON'T!" The Fury, too, was overheating, struggling valiantly to counteract two CPC beams and hover in mid-air at the same time. It would not let Vega down. It would not lose. Never. Not if it had to take the Liger Zero on with a blunt spork.

Something had to give, really. It was inevitable. The sandy ground had long since melted to glass and now the glass was melting, and everything was growing more blinding and noisy in an exponential sort of way.

* * *

The entire area rocked with the force of a massive explosion. The Shadow Fox's head bounced and landed upside-down, and Rinon's Sniper fell over again, causing Ballad to plunge to the ground for a second time, cursing. He had just gotten back up, and—oh, how nice, a shockwave, complete with lots of dust.

Coughing, he tried to get enough dust out of his eyes to see, but to little avail. "Rinon! Can you see anything? Are they alive? Where's Shineryuu?"

"How should I know? Argh, I can't tell if they're even moving, it's so thick." She started coughing too, as she'd made the mistake of opening the cockpit soon after the initial dust wave. "That took out my sensors. BIIIT!"

* * *

Still-cooling glass sizzled and crackled. Occasional bits of Command Wolf of DOOM! were spread throughout. The main body of the Wolf lay half-melted into it, a portion of its front seared with lines of CPC energy. Mach sat on its head, though, Shineryuu leaning on his shoulder. He'd gotten them both out in time.

The Liger Zero and the Fury both slowly got to their feet, breaking free of the ruined ground in showers of blackened glass. Both shed armor as they did so, what was still left of it and not fused into the glass ruined anyway.

No words were exchanged. No words needed to be. The two Zoids, armorless and both near collapse, sprang for each others' throats, the Liger leaping over the fallen Wolf before lunging for the Fury. They hit the glass—you couldn't really call it dirt any more—scratching and biting and clawing. Both seemed berserk at this point, rolling on the ground snarling and hissing at each other.

Finally, the Liger got hold of the Fury's neck, laser fangs finding vital systems even as it started to slump from exhaustion. The Fury gave one last screeching cry, slamming a foot into the Liger's belly and sending them both into a command system freeze at the same moment. Flopping to the ground half on top of each other, neither Zoid moved for a few seconds. Then the Liger's tailtip twitched once, the Fury muttered something that Vega thought sounded like "oh, fishsticks", and the two Zoids shut down completely.

"Ghhh...hey, Vega, you okay over there?"

"Yeah. What, you though I was gonna miss half the excitement like last time?" There was a pause, and the Fury's cockpit opened. Vega clambered out slowly, an exhausted grin on his face. "That was fun."

"Yeah," Bit said, also smiling in a rather dazed sort of way. "I haven't heard the judge call it a draw yet. Maybe we blew him up." He leaned out the side of the Liger's now-open cockpit, enjoying the feel of the wind in his hair as it started to clear away the smoke.

"I think we kinda blew everything up." Vega gestured to the ring of glass with a tired hand. "'S kind of pretty, you know."

"Yeah, it's all shinyyyy."

Suffice it to say, both pilots were rather out of it.

* * *

Jamie, too, was wondering why the judge was still standing there, its arms crossed impatiently. He'd taken the Raynos out to the edge of the Hover Cargo's ramp after the explosion in an attempt to see what had happened. Wait. The Raynos. It wasn't frozen.

Jamie hopped the Raynos off the edge of the ramp. The second its feet left it, the judge spoke up.

"Took you long enough to realize that, didn't it? Oh, well, at least this is done and I can move on to my next job. If I even get there. Battle...all over! Winner, Team Blitz! Bye now."

Jamie blinked. That meant..._he'd_ won the battle? Him? Jamie? "Hey, cool—"

"ALL RIGHT! Woo! We wonnnn! Way to go, Bit!"

Bit had done a lot of the work, but if his Raynos hadn't been around, they wouldn't have won on a silly technicality, would they? Was it too much to ask for a little credit? "Um...I was the one who—"

"You rock, man, that was some fight."

It seemed so. "That's it, I'm gonna go sulk again. And I don't care if that makes me a clichéd angsty teenager, darnit, I WANT to angst!"

The Raynos squawked in protest to such an immediate return to the Hover Cargo, but knew it was better than being stuck with an angsty pilot. They tended to ramble, and it couldn't handle much more rambling right now. The Shadow Fox had taken to it since the whole Shineryuu thing, very distressing. Perhaps it should get its pilot to talk to the Fox. They could ramble angstily together. Was angstily even a word?

The Hover Cargo trundled slowly out to the battlefield, going to pick up the scattered pieces of Team Blitz' Zoids.

* * *

"Talk about cheap! Fury's gonna be bummed when he wakes up." Vega was sitting on the Zoid's head, picking bits of glass off of it and his jacket. He had quite a pile of them now, all sharp and shiny. "Hey, Bit?"

"Mmmm...what?" Bit opened one eye and then closed it again, resuming the nap he'd been taking. The edge of the Liger's cockpit wasn't the best of pillows, but he didn't care. "So tired..."

Vega shrugged and resumed his glass project. There wasn't much he could do about it. Fury'd have to be content with a draw in spirit, if not a real one. Stupid rules. Stupid—ooh, a piece of glass shaped kind of like a Cannon Tortoise. You didn't see that every day. Yawning, Vega decided that Bit might have the right idea, and curled up on Fury's head, being careful not to knock the glass off. Sarah would probably make him get rid of it. Too dangerous, she'd say, never mind he'd piloted the Zoid that'd MADE it.

Falling asleep...yep. Maybe Fury'd be up and moving when he woke up. That'd be nice. They could play card games again.

* * *

Final Excerpt From "Vega's Stupid Boring Diary Thingie":

_At least this time they're more experienced at fixing Fury's armor, but that same person is still playing that dumb radio station. Do you have any idea how weird it is to have someone else having a song stuck in your head?_

_I think we're going to retire from Zoid battling. Travel. See the world. We could maybe join up with Team Tigers—I heard they were quitting and instead going on the road as the first ever team of Saber Tiger acrobats. Of course, lavender doesn't really go with yellow. I don't think Fury'd want me to paint him. Maybe Team Tigers would paint their Zoids lavender?_

* * *

"You did WHAT now?"

"I ate your necklace. I'm sorry, really. I was so tired. I was out of it, and wandering around the base, and those blue things turned out to be part Zoid Magnite."

Like the proverbial cat caught with the canary, Mach was sitting with a lone feather dangling out of his mouth. Ballad looked as though he were going to scream.

"AAARGH!"

Correction, he _was_ going to scream.

"Please don't shout like that." Shineryuu, not wanting to see anyone fighting, was trying to pull Ballad away from her organoid. "And no strangling."

"But he...gah...that necklace was special. I can't remember _why_, mind you, but it was."

"Come on, let's get some coffee and go sort out which scorched pieces belong to which Zoid."

* * *

Finally fixed, Harry's König Wolf stood proudly in the hangar door once more, taking in the view of the sunset. The snow white of its armor reflected the fading light, giving normally sharp angles a watercolor appearance. Its pilot was sitting nearby, rather quiet by anyone's standards, and very much so for him. Harry seemed to have given up on poetry for the moment, although the fact that he was also reading a book on the painting of Zoids made the Wolf wonder if it would stay in its present color scheme for long.

So long as it wasn't pink or labeled with anything involving that girl.

"You know, I could paint you to match her Gun Sniper. Stick a few gatlings here and there. Ah, that's a no, isn't it." Harry had correctly identified the shadow that had fallen over his head as being the Wolf's foot. "Just a gatling gun, then?" The shadow disappeared, and Harry grinned. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me...about that poem. Woah!"

Harry wasn't quite sure why his König Wolf had dropped his sister's Leoblaze on his head, but he did take the hint.

"Well, I don't suppose _you'd_ want to hear this."

To his surprise, the garishly-painted Zoid curled up happily in front of him. A captive audience that didn't hate him, tell him to get a life, or threaten to step on him after a few hours? This was new.

He now had no idea what to say. It was such an unusual occurrence.

The Leoblaze wondered what was up. Reaching out with one silver claw, it carefully nudged Harry's shoulder. Harry fell over. Harry was now yelling at it. Oops, perhaps that hadn't been very careful.

"Ow! Hey! I'm trying to think, gimme a minute!"

The Wolf wished it had a hangar of its own. Lucky humans, they had rooms. Then again, they also had all these reasons to angst. When was the last time you saw Zoids worrying about what kind of flowers to send a girl? Then again, here it was, wondering if it'd make things better or worse if it did bite that girl's head off.

This wasn't good. And here none of its common sense ever seemed to rub off on the guy. Well, it could only keep trying. It'd be more careful of the angst, though. Whatever caused it, it sure was contagious.

* * *

"And yet another exciting victory for Team KawaiiSugoiNeko, which seems to be recovering nicely from its devastating loss against the famous Team Blitz. Is there anyone they can't beat?"

"Me." Jack Sisco was stretched out on his Lightning Saix's head, listening to the radio on its external speakers. "Everyone forgets that."

"You mean us."

Kelly and Chris both were out watching the meteor shower that night too, although they were sitting in front of the latter's Saix. Jack shrugged, and the second announcer—a perky woman, by the sound of it—continued babbling mindlessly about the day's battles.

"GET DOWN TO BOB'S RENT-A-ZOID TODAY! BIG ZOIDS, LITTLE ZOIDS, ALL OF 'EM CHEA—"

The sudden increase in bass and overall volume caused both Jack and his Saix to jump, and he found himself falling to the dirt, the obnoxious commercial blabbering on unawares.

"Turn that off! Turn it...geh..." Upside-down, he kicked the Saix's ankle until it got the idea and did so. Chirring raspily with amusement, it watched its pilot get up and straighten his golf-club-like headband with as much dignity as he could muster.

"Told you not to sit up there."

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

"Oooooh. Pretty."

Bit and the Liger were the only members of Team Blitz who were out that night. Shineryuu and Ballad were too busy fixing their Zoids—still in pieces—and Jamie was off...somewhere, he didn't know. Rinon might have come out here to follow him, but since he was hiding, she hadn't bothered.

He had quiet, for once. And he chose to spend it in the most logical of ways: blasting loud music. And singing along, too, in between commenting on some of the more shiny meteors. No one there to tell him he was off-key, and more importantly, no one to whack him over the head to shut him up, and then a few seconds later chase him demanding to help him by kissing it to make it feel better. Scary mood swings Rinon'd been having lately, there.

The Liger Zero, too, was content. The Schneider and Flauschig both trashed, it had worn the Jäger out here, opting for the armor that was less likely to be seen. Okay, so it still had white bits...but it could make a quicker getaway. The Gun Sniper pilot's recent actions scared it as well. Why were humans so horribly unpredictable?

"Wonder who else is watching this, eh, Liger?" The Zoid rumbled a quiet reply. "I kinda miss traveling sometimes, you know?"

Bit was in an unusually philosophical mood, it seemed. How he could keep this up and carry on a meaningful conversation while there was rock music playing so loudly the Liger's cockpit shook slightly with the beat was a mystery of the sort that no one can ever solve.

* * *

"Insert tab A into slot B while rotating joint Q-1..." A book labeled "Shadow Fox Emergency Re-Assembly Instructions" in his hand, Ballad wondered how the heck he was supposed to do something that already required three hands, not to mention holding onto the book. "If I ever meet Doctor Leyon again—" He shoved the book between his knee and the Fox. "—I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind." Trying to hold one of the Shadow Fox bits in his mouth didn't work, and neither did shoving it with his elbow.

"Or at that rate, a piece of your Fox." Blue paw reaching out to steady things, Mach regarded the fluffy-haired pilot with a typical unreadable stare.

"Thanks," Ballad said, his heart not really in it. Besides Mach having eaten his necklace, he never had really trusted that organoid. Sure, he acted nice, but was that just because Shineryuu said to be nice to him? And he was too clever. He'd been about to mutter something about pieces of his Fox. Jerk had stolen his line.

Of course, he could put up with Mach if it meant having Shineryuu around. He thought of her beautiful eyes: elegant orbs of crystal golden aquamarine and shimmering garnet vermilion mauve. Such an unusual color...perfectly natural, though, she'd said. Not contacts, nope.

He'd been half-subconsciously still working on the Fox, and in his daydreaming had gotten its head re-attached. It whirred happily and wuffed a hello, but it went unnoticed by Ballad, who stood there, hearts in his eyes once more.

"You know, you could probably screech and he wouldn't notice you." Mach rolled his eyes. While he understood the whole love thing humans talked about, this was just silly. "Wait, that was sarcasm—"

_"!"_

"...ow. My ears."

"Oh, hey, Fox. Suppose I should get the rest of you together now, huh?"

"Mach? Ballad, dear? Could you guys give me a hand with this?"

The Shadow Fox found itself abandoned, still damaged. Oh, figures. It growled at the side of the hangar containing the Command Wolf of DOOM!, half-assembled, half in pieces all over the floor. So busy growling and glaring, it nearly didn't notice Jamie walking up to it. Stopping for the moment, it turned its head to face the other neglected member of Team Blitz.

"Um...I can't help but think that my Raynos has been saying I should talk to you. I know that's not very sane, but hey, here I am telling that to an AI, hehheh." Jamie laughed nervously, one hand behind his head. "But no one else will talk to me, and I suppose Zoids at least listen..." Looking up at the pair of orange eyes that now focused directly on him, Jamie sighed. "And I suppose I should fix you, too, if he isn't going to."

Now they were talking. The Fox lifted its right front leg, pointing out how badly it wobbled when it did this...

* * *

A few days went by, the team having taken a week off to recover. Who was going to deny them that? They had beaten a supposedly unstoppable Zoid—twice. One of those times had been doing the ZBC quite a favor in the process, too.

Things were pretty much quiet. Not quiet enough to be boring, thankfully. But there weren't any spectacular explosion of coffeemakers, either. Bit helped fix the Liger's armor, Rinon chased him a few times, Bit hid in the storage bin for the Liger's armor...things like that. The Command Wolf of DOOM! slowly neared re-completion, and Jamie kept from angsting by busying himself fixing the Fox...and then when he finished that, polishing it until it shone almost as much as Harry's ex-Command Wolves in spots.

The Fox, of course, loved it, although it was a bit disappointed that its shinier theory proved false: Ballad still ignored it. Alas. But now it had a new friend, if even an angsty one. Jamie had potential to be a good pilot, it thought, if he'd stop being so nervous all the time. Good pilots took care of their Zoids, unlike some it could mention. The kid had even kept checking up on his Raynos while he was working so frantically on getting it up and running, the Fox remembered.

"All right, everything's in order." Jamie patted his Raynos' snout, the smallish Zoid sitting quietly where it always did. Now for the Fox.

Walking past Command Wolf of DOOM! bits on the floor, Jamie soon reached the Shadow Fox, which greeted him with a swish of its tail. He'd been thinking...Ballad used to always take the thing out for runs, hadn't he? Well, there had to be something to that. While the Raynos was nice, it couldn't really run, and flying was different. So...

"Hello, Fox. Wanna go for a walk...er...run?"

Uncertain as the request was, it was exactly the right thing to say if you wanted the Shadow Fox to start bouncing up and down as if someone had tied giant springs to its claws.

"Uh, that's a yes, I take it?"

* * *

The Saber Tiger stood inert as energy crackled around the blades aimed at its face, seeming to not notice. The Fury attached to said blades stabbed—

—and missed by near inches, stopping perfectly short. It roared, spinning the claws and setting off a spectacular light show of afterimages in what was rapidly becoming a night sky as it swiped the arm in neat arcs around the Saber Tiger. Finally, the cat acted, backflipping clean over one of Vega's swipes and firing point-blank...confetti-filled shells, that is, and landing behind him as he brought the second claw swinging over his head like a giant pointed baton.

"Let's see if we can get it right this time. Annnnd...now!"

Two more Saber Tigers, their yellow and blue paint polished to a gleaming shine, bounded over the Fury, landing neatly as it snapped at them in mock-anger, fangs ablaze like its claws. It slammed footlocks down, craning its head upwards as it charged its CPC at a lower power than usual, moving the Buster Claws in front of its face and raising an oddly-shaped shield. The reason for it was made clear when it fired, and the CP beam went swirling up into the sky. Twisting around like some bizarre tornado, it soon formed a brilliant circle of power, much like the ring of fire necessary for many a clichéd circus act finale.

Except this ring could probably slice a Zoid in half...which first Kirkland and then Lineback's Saber Tigers had lost a limb in testament to, until they'd discovered Omari had more of a talent for leaping through the thing.

Snarling a challenge, the middle Tiger charged the ring, the painfully neon pink of the shield reflecting in its green eyes.

* * *

"I don't think we should go back either," Jamie said. "My Raynos'll probably be the only one who notices I'm gone, and I bet he'll be fine with some other pilot anyway."

The Shadow Fox wuffed in sympathy, continuing along its steady course away from the Team Blitz base and towards the setting sun.

"Yeah, and Ballad's been ignoring you ever since that girl came along. Little Miss look-at-meee, I have an organoid and a horrible tragic past. I bet she made it all up."

_"Raoooo?"_

"Well, don't worry, you won't have to be upstaged by Liger Zero anymore either." Jamie could have sworn he heard the Shadow Fox purr at that, although he knew foxes didn't purr. "I heard Vega and Team Tigers have quite an act in the works, but they could use someone to jump through the Flaming Charged Particle Cannon Ring of Death. Omari's always worried that his Tiger's going to lose a foot or two. It'd be something to do, at least."

The Shadow Fox yipped in agreement, a bit of a spring entering its step. Finally, a job where it'd be appreciated for its agility and speed once more!

"So it's settled, then. Okay, Fox, here's the co-ordinates where I last heard they were..." Jamie's fingers flew over the console, entering a short string of numbers and information. The Fox paused for a second as it got its bearings, and then bounded off with a cheerful howl. The setting sun caught the golden metal of its cockpit for a moment, sending light cascading over nearby rocks, and the Shadow Fox and Jamie were on their way.

* * *

From the top of yet another cliff, a dejected Harry watched them from the cockpit of his König Wolf. The sleek creature mirrored its pilot's mood, sitting with its head lowered and ears flattened in what could only be sorrow, even in something as inexpressive as a robotic canine. Needless to say, his second attempt at poetry had been even more poorly received than the first, and even he was starting to lose hope. Sort of. Kind of. Well, maybe. But for the moment, he was depressed.

"There they go, Wolf." The König Wolf growled a soft question, and the controls to the comm system started blinking.

"Heh, maybe we should go with them. We forgotten souls have to stick together." Harry activated a comm link to the running Shadow Fox. "Hello? Jamie? Hello!" Nothing. "Blast, no answer." Harry sighed. "I think he's got it sent to ignore people. Story of my life, Wolf, story of my life."

_"Aruuuuu."_

"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me...worms, WORMS!"

_"AaaaoooOOORUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuu."_ The König Wolf raised its goggled head to the sky, howling a story of lost loves, rejection, and...worms. Its call echoed over the landscape, the higher-pitched howls of a few wild Command Wolves the only answer.

* * *

Back at Team Blitz's base, it was doubtful if anyone was paying enough attention to have heard the wolf-type Zoids. Ballad had discovered his missing Shadow Fox and was angsting about it, while Shineryuu attempted to comfort him, promising to help him find a new Zoid with the help of Mach, who would be more than happy to fuse with something and make it all big and pointy and strong and stuff. Doc was off in prettyshinymodelZoidsland again, and was presently sending a Storm Sworder after a gold Command Wolf. The Wolf grabbed a silver CP-04, and blasted the Storm Sworder out of the sky with much dramatic shouting. And explosions, of course. Explosions were pretty and shiny too.

As for Bit...well.

"There is NO way I'm opening this cockpit, Rinon!" The teen in question was currently cowering in the cockpit of his Zoid, his one remaining defense against the now even scarier Rinon. Being whacked with blunt objects, thrown out windows, that he could handle. But this?

"Not even for this whole box of doughnuts, Bit-chaaaannn~?"

Now that just wasn't _fair_.

"Promise you won't try to kiss me again?"

"Of course, sweetie!"

"All right, but move back a little."

The Liger growled a warning, but Bit couldn't resist. They looked so tasty, those doughnuts...all covered in powdered sugar, frosting, sprinkles. He opened the hatch just enough to lean out and—

"GOT YOU!" Rinon leapt for the teen the second his hand was on the box of doughnuts, somehow managing to clear the distance between herself and the box in seconds. The only thing that saved Bit was the lightning-fast reflexes he had picked up as a pilot, which enabled him to roll to the right, doughnuts in hand. Rinon missed getting a hold on his vest by mere inches. Unfortunately, Bit also happened to be on the edge of a Zoid cockpit.

That floor sure was a long way down.

He scrambled to his feet and took off in the sort of sprint one achieves when powered by sheer terror, leaving behind several rather smushed doughnuts. Rinon followed rapidly on his heels, shouting something about giving back the doughnuts before she had to hurt him. And then marry him. The latter spurred Bit into an even more frantic dash, speeding through the hallways in hopes of finding a safe haven for himself and the flattened pastries.

Had Jamie still been there, he would doubtless have been sighing.

_"Do you think those two are ever gonna stop that?"_ Rinon's Gun Sniper turned to its two companions. _"She's been ignoring me, just like poor Shadow Fox."_

_"At least your pilot's still here,"_ the Raynos pointed out. _"Then again, at least I won't have to listen to Mister Angst any more."_ It sighed, watching first Bit and then Rinon run past the hangar door again for what it thought was the eleventh time.

_"Doesn't _look_ like they're going to be stopping anytime soon,"_ the Liger commented dryly, turning its head toward the other residents of the hangar. _"Anyone else want to see if Leon's Blade Liger is doing anything tonight?"_

* * *

**End.**


End file.
